Anna and the Prince
by DarkDamson
Summary: Anna has to decide whether to risk her life to save Portland's prince. She has to find out what sort of man he is. Is Captain Sean Renard worth fighting for? Romance, sex, cursing, and graphic action. Takes place in the second half of season 1 & 1st half of season 2. Lots of Sean Renard. Some Nick. Some Monroe & Rosalee. Sequel to "Anna Sees All" & "Anna's Favorite Grimm."
1. Decision

Decision

Now that Liliana had found a way to prevent Monroe's death in the lowen games, she set herself to preventing the other deaths she had seen. Nick's, Sean Renard's, Officer Wu's, and Detective Hank's.

It seemed like she rarely looked into anyone's future lately without seeing them die horribly. But at least, with her success in saving the gentle wolf, she felt optimistic about the others.

She already spent a fair amount of time each week training with the Grimm and his wolf. Nick was the one who needed the training now, so that he could defeat the two reapers that would eventually come for him. But Monroe enjoyed working out with them, and helping Nick hone his skill. The better Monroe got at fighting, the more Nick had to improve to beat him. So, she trained them both.

Nick's death became more and more flickery and uncertain each day that they practiced. Those two reapers, when they arrived, were not going to find a raw, green, untrained Grimm. Nick's natural ability meant that his fighting skills improved at an incredible pace. The next enemy that squared off against Portland's Grimm, would be in for a nasty surprise.

Since Detective Hank never took anything Liliana said seriously, her warnings to him went unheeded. Saving him would have to be done through other avenues. Liliana was looking into that.

That left Officer Wu and the dark prince, Sean Renard. Both would die on the same night, killed by the same Japanese man with a Norse tattoo on his face. Liliana liked Wu. She would save him.

Saving both the prince and Wu would require that Liliana be there in person, not just give them advice. She could save Wu simply by distracting the killer at the right moment, but to save the prince, she would have to defend him with her own life.

The real question wasn't, "Could she save the prince?" It was, "Should she?" And just as essential a question, "Did she want to save Sean Renard badly enough to fight for him?"

She spent some time looking at the intersection between her favorite Grimm and the dark prince. Many of their interactions had been unknown to Nick. He was still unaware that his police captain was anything other than a police captain.

Some of the prince's actions on Nick's behalf had been very positive. Liliana had seen the prince shoot a man with a shotgun a fraction of a second before he would have shot and possibly killed Nick. She had seen the prince emphatically order away a reaper that had come to kill Nick, and command that no other reapers come to his city. That order had almost certainly saved Nick's life, as it kept the reapers away long enough for Nick to find his way in the dangerous world of a Grimm.

Liliana had already established that the reapers that were coming for Nick in a couple of months were not sent at the prince's order. The prince had been angry when Liliana told him about reapers coming for Nick. Even though the prince desperately wanted something from Nick, a key, and he had a great deal of pressure from others, he refused to allow Nick to be hurt to get it.

But, she had also seen that the attempts on the life of Nick's second mother, his Aunt Marie, had been ordered by the prince himself, or at least done with his knowledge and approval. She also knew that the dark prince was behind the danger to Hank's life.

Prince Sean Renard protected Nick with one hand and threatened people Nick loved with the other.

Beyond his relationship with her favorite Grimm, the prince appeared to be ruthless as a leader, but fair. He kept his word once it was given. He stood as a strong force for justice and order in Portland. If he died, there would be a power vacuum. Who or what would step into that vacuum was another unknown. Without a strong leader, the local wesen community could quickly turn to violence and chaos. If someone like Leo Taymor, who until recently might have been a contender, stepped into the prince's shoes, it could be disastrous.

Liliana had tried looking into the possible paths of the future to see if the prince's death would, in the long run, be a good thing or a bad thing, but after a certain point, the future became nothing but fuzzy uncertainty. Each day, each action, each moment shaped the paths of the future. Those paths were always shifting. Normally, most things flowed predictably enough that the future was stable further out.

Right now, the future of Portland hung in a state of flux. Many things were changing. Lives hung in the balance.

Her fourth eyes could not tell her if saving the prince was the right thing to do or not.

She would need to spend more time with this prince, to determine if he was someone she would be willing to fight for.

Her first meeting with the prince had been by chance, and there had been very little time to speak with him. She would have to choose a good time and place where she could speak with the prince at greater length, without being interrupted.

Liliana would rather have her teeth drilled than walk into the police station again. So, it would have to be somewhere else. Her first social call in many years had been at Monroe's house, and that had gone quite smoothly.

She decided it was time for another one.

The prince would be at home this evening, and did not appear to be particularly busy. She saw him leave the police station to exercise at an exclusive gym. Then she saw him sipping coffee and reading over some reports from work, but not with the intensity that would indicate that they were urgent. He wore sweats and a thin white t-shirt, and had that freshly showered, relaxed look that men often had after a good workout.

It seemed like a good time to drop in.

The cab dropped Liliana off in front of the prince's apartment building. It was pretty and modern with lighted glass staircases and shiny metal walls.

The building had tight security. A man waited behind a desk to take her name, and let Sean Renard know she was there. Then the security man would have to push a button to unlock the door that led to the elevators. He would also give her a special code that she had to punch in so that she could use the elevator.

It seemed like an awful lot of bother for her to go through for no reason. She had no intention of harming the prince. And the security would be useless against the man who did actually intend to harm him.

Liliana used her fourth eyes to find a good time to go in. She timed walking in the building to a moment when the man at the desk was busy with something else. She walked past him and through the locked door just as someone else walked out. She got in the elevator and punched in the code which she had seen the man hand to someone else before she arrived. Simple.

She knocked on the prince's door. With her fourth eyes, she watched him set down the report he had been reading, pick up a pistol, and go to the door to look out through the peephole. Liliana quickly closed all of her eyes but her human ones. The prince did not like her looking into his mind with her third eyes. So, she would have to get to know him without that advantage.

He opened the door, gun hidden behind it, brows furrowed in puzzlement. "Liliana." He looked up and down the corridor to verify that she was alone. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to know whether or not I should save your life."

His lips quirked on the edge and the expression in his eyes lightened. "Still trying to make up your mind?"

"Yes."

"Well, come in then. Can I offer you anything?" The prince opened the door and stepped aside, but he kept the gun in his hand.

Liliana walked in and looked around. "You don't have any tea."

He chuckled. "No, I'm afraid I don't."

"That's okay. I'm not thirsty." Liliana looked around at his place, trying to think of something complimentary to say. His place was spotlessly clean and furnished like a magazine. There were very few clues to the personality of the man who lived here, aside from the insistence on order. "I like your balcony." It was good to have an alternative exit in any home in case, say, a Grimm walked in one door and accused you of murder. You could escape out the other one.

Renard looked at the sliding glass doors with the curtains closed across them. "The view is pretty amazing actually. Would you like to see it?"

Liliana opened her fourth eyes and looked through the curtains. "You're right. The view is very pretty. The city lights look like Christmas decorations from here."

Renard chuckled again. "I meant, would you like to walk out on the balcony and see the view with me?"

"Oh." Liliana tilted her head to one side for a moment. "Okay."

The prince opened the curtains, then slid the glass door open. The evening was a little chili, but it wasn't raining and Liliana still had her favorite wrap on, a double-thick quilted teal blue velvet cape that Phoebe Wurstner had made for her. It kept her warm, was wonderfully soft, and it didn't restrict her arm blades.

She walked out onto the balcony, the prince at her back, with the gun still in his hand. "Are you afraid of me?" she asked him.

"Should I be?" He walked up beside her at the balcony railing, the light breeze ruffling his short dark hair.

The same breeze tossed Liliana's long thick black hair behind her, away from her face. That made her feel a little exposed. She was used to having it hang around her face, hiding her from people. "I told you before. The danger to your life isn't from me."

"What makes you think I'm afraid then?" He sounded a little insulted. He stood unusually close, so that she found herself staring at his chest. He had a rather nice chest, with broad shoulders at about the level of the top of her head, and pronounced lines of muscle clearly visible through the thin t-shirt. She had watched him at the gym. She knew what lay under that t-shirt. It was just as magnificent as the thin cloth hinted at. It took her a moment to remember that he had asked her a question.

Maybe Liliana had misinterpreted his actions. She tilted her head and considered for a moment. No, the gun didn't make sense unless he was scared of her. "You don't talk to everyone who comes to visit you while holding a gun, do you?"

He looked down at the gun in his hand. He had been holding it low and a little behind his leg. He probably thought she hadn't noticed it. "Let's just say I'm a little cautious. I've heard some things about spinnesehen that make it seem prudent."

Liliana thought about that, then nodded. "If it makes you more comfortable, I understand."

He chuckled again. "Very generous of you."

Liliana shrugged. "I could kill you, or take your hand off at the wrist before you could shoot me in any case."

The prince's body tensed and his weight shifted more forward to the balls of his feet. His knees bent slightly and hands came subtly more forward. "Are you sure of that?"

It was a good defensive position, without appearing aggressive and the prince outweighed her by a hundred pounds of muscle. Liliana smiled and admitted, "Not entirely sure." She liked that she wasn't sure she could beat him in a fight. She wasn't afraid of him, but neither was she comfortable with him. His presence was a little like the cold wind in her hair. Exhilarating.

Here was a man who had been properly trained to fight, and who kept his body strong despite fighting most of his battles behind a desk. Her father would have respected this prince. He might have named the man enemy and killed him, but he would have respected him. "There is no advantage for you to gain in trying to kill me, so …" she shrugged. "It doesn't really matter."

"No advantage in it?" Renard asked. "Do you think advantage is the only reason to kill someone?"

"Advantage, hate or fear," Liliana said. "Those are the reasons that sane people kill. You threatened me in the car because you were afraid. Now, you tell me that you are not afraid, and I tell you that there is no advantage to be gained." She shrugged again. "You have no reason to hate me, so, the gun must be there to make you feel more in control. I can accept that."

The amused quirk at the edge of his lips broadened, his body relaxed a little, and his weight shifted back to the center of his feet, which she just noticed were bare. "So, since I have your approval to keep my gun, maybe you could tell me what you came here to ask me?"

Now that she was there, how was she supposed to decide whether he was a man worth fighting for? "I'm not really sure," Liliana said. "Usually other people ask me questions."

He nodded. "Well, I'm used to asking the questions, so that works. Maybe you could start by telling me what sort of danger I'm supposed to be in?"

Liliana nodded. "We should go back inside, though. Your feet will get cold." She walked back into the prince's living room and sat down on his pristine white sectional couch.

He followed her, after shutting the glass door.

Liliana paid close attention to the door. There was a latch on it, but the prince didn't use it. He hadn't unlocked it to open it earlier either. He kept his balcony door unlocked. That might be how the killer got in.

"You should lock your door. You are going to be murdered in your home in a few months," she told the prince.

"Is there any way I can avoid it?" He sat down on the couch right next to her, holding the gun negligently in one hand.

"You ask very good questions," Liliana told him. "Most people don't, you know." She looked into the future to see if simply locking his door would prevent his murder, but saw no change. Either he ignored her advice, or locking the door didn't keep the murderer out. Lilliana sighed. It had been worth a try.

Renard waved a hand slightly in front of her face to get her attention, which had wandered. "I would particularly like that question answered."

"No."

Renard's eyebrows went up, and his grip on the gun became less relaxed. "You're not going to answer me?"

"No, that's the answer. As far as I can tell, without having a high probability of making matters worse, there is no way for you to avoid the series of events that will lead to your death."

"What could be worse than me dying?"

"You dying in a more horrible way, you dying in a way that I could not stop, several other people dying, this entire building burning to the ground with you and several other people locked inside it." Those were all possibilities that Liliana had seen briefly flicker into being while she considered ways to try to save the prince without having to directly involve herself.

"Okay, I get what you mean, but if my murder is unavoidable, then what can you do about it?"

"I can fight your murderer to protect you."

"If you could fight off this attacker, then why couldn't I?"

"He is a very skilled wesen fighter. He will catch you by surprise from behind. I can probably defeat him because he cannot surprise me, but I would have to risk my life to save yours."

"Why would you do that?" Renard leaned toward her, focused on her face. Her answer to that question interested him greatly.

"I don't really have any reason to," Liliana told him. "That's why I'm here."

"Then it seems that I'm doomed." The prince showed teeth in a smile that was handsome, charming, and never reached his eyes. "Unless I give you a reason to defend me." He pushed her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He leaned in and whispered the next words in her ear. "Shall I give you a reason?"

His warm breath on her neck sent a shiver up her spine. She didn't know why he was whispering. There was no one else there to hear. She turned to look at him and tilted her head confused. "Yes, please. A reason to save you is what I'm looking for."

He kissed her.

He was very good at it. He fisted a hand in her hair at the base of her neck, and kissed her very thoroughly.

Liliana wasn't used to kissing people with her third eyes closed, but the prince had threatened to shoot her when she looked at him with her third eyes. His eyes were closed, so he wouldn't know, and she had not technically given him her word that she wouldn't look. She opened her third eyes and looked at him.

He liked kissing her, but it was a surface enjoyment. There was a jumble of different motivations underneath. He didn't entirely believe her about his life being in danger, but kissing her was a calculated move to gain her as an ally, just in case. She amused him and intrigued him. She was pretty, and he hadn't gotten laid in a while. She could be a powerful ally to have, if half the crazy rumors he'd heard about spinnesehen were true. If he could convince her to have sex with him regularly, he might live for hundreds of years if that rumor were true. That was worth sleeping with her all by itself, even if she was unattractive, which she wasn't.

Liliana closed her third eyes and pulled away from him. He was quite exceptional at kissing, but she did not like his reasons for kissing her.

He raised an eyebrow at her in question as she pulled away.

"You're still holding the gun," she pointed out.

He straightened up and looked down at the gun in his hand as if he had forgotten it was there.

Liliana stood up abruptly and walked to the glass doors. The view was still beautiful but she barely noticed it. "I saw you kill the king of lions."

She looked down at her hands and stroked the soft fabric of her cape. If she intended to stay a while, she should have taken it off. She didn't think she would stay.

He followed her, but stood a little behind her, not quite so close. She opened her second eyes, the ones on her temples that gave her a 360 degree view, so she could watch him without turning around.

"You're wrong. I didn't kill the lowan king," the prince told her.

"I misspoke," Lilliana corrected herself. "Leo Taymor broke his word to you and refused to obey, so you arranged for him to be killed. This is what I saw."

"Who do you intend to tell about that?" His gun no longer pointed at the floor, it was aimed at her back.

Liliana sighed, exasperated, and shook her head.

"What?" he asked.

She turned to face him. "You keep pointing guns at me. It's making it very hard for me to find a good reason to like you."

His lips quirked again and his eyes lightened. Liliana realized something. That tiny twitch of lips and lightening of eyes was a genuine smile of amusement. The broad smile he gave her just before he kissed her was for show, a politician's charm. But that tiny twitch of a smile, the one her comments kept putting on his face, was real.

As that smile touched his face, the tip of the gun barrel dipped half an inch. "I suppose that would make it difficult," he said, with amusement in his voice.

He would not shoot her. In that moment, she didn't need her third eyes to be certain of that.

"You actually like me," Liliana said, in surprise.

"I did kiss you," Renard pointed out.

"You kissed me because you calculated that it was to your advantage."

"And because I like you."

"Why?"

"You say exactly what you mean. Everything you say is the absolute unvarnished truth. I'm not used to that. It's very … refreshing."

"I like you, too."

"Why?" he said, lips quirked in amusement as he turned the tables on her.

"My father was a lowan. He would have cheered to see Leo Taymor get his throat ripped out. I wanted to cheer a little, too." She considered, head tilted. There was more to it than that. She wasn't certain when her opinion of the prince had shifted. The kiss certainly hadn't hurt. "I was raised to respect men of honor. You understand the importance of keeping your word. You fight to bring order to a world that has known only chaos for centuries. You protect my friend the Grimm, even though he doesn't know it. And you look good with your shirt off."

Renard barked a startled laugh.

Liliana thought about what she had said that might be funny. "I shouldn't have said that last part out loud."

"I'm not offended, Liliana." The way he said her name was like a caress. He set the gun down on the table and stepped closer to her. He used neither the name that her friends used, not the name that her customers used. He had made his own unique category for himself. He pushed her hair back from her face with both hands, put a fingertip under her chin and lifted her face so it tilted up to him.

Liliana looked at him with just her human eyes. He was very nice to look at. His eyes were not pure shining blue like her favorite Grimm. They were a light hazel mix of green and blue with dashes of light brown and gray, complex eyes that could change with the light or the time of day, or the mood of the man behind them. "You put the gun down."

"You made your decision."

Liliana considered. "Yes. I will fight for you when you need me."

He bent down toward her.

"I have already decided. You don't have to kiss me again to convince me."

"Maybe I want to kiss you."

"If you kiss me, I will look into you again," she warned him. "I always look when kissing."

He stopped, bent down to reach her much shorter stature. The smile disappeared. "I told you to stay out of my head." His touch on her face was no longer gentle.

"I apologize for not asking permission first, but I did not expect you to kiss me."

"Accepted. You won't do it again." His hard voice made it an order.

"I give you my word that I will never look into your mind without your permission, except when we are kissing."

His jaws tightened. "Then I think you're done here."

Lilliana nodded. "I will go home now." His reaction to her warning was exactly what she expected. Still, she felt disappointed. She had wanted him to kiss her again. She had just wanted him to do it for the right reasons.

She sighed and left.

Her decision was made. That was what she came for, wasn't it?


	2. Love and Other Drugs

Liliana swung and flew from bar to bar, line to line in a space originally designed for a two car garage and attic storage above it. She had removed the ceiling drywall and hung inch wide metal bars and ropes from various parts of the house superstructure. She danced along the ropes and swung from one to another, watching where her hands and feet would land with her two human eyes, and watching other times, places, and people with her fourth eyes.

It was good practice, in splitting her mind in two without losing concentration. When she became too accustomed to the placement of the ropes and bars, she would move them to a new configuration.

She jumped for a swinging bar … and missed. Again.

She landed reasonably well on the gym mats she used in place of carpet and rolled to absorb impact. She was not injured physically, but inside, everything that mattered in her world seemed to be falling apart.

She kept thinking about the dark prince. Sean Renard's face, laughing, cruel, hard, dark, angry, afraid, concerned, smiling, bloody and in pain. Every time she looked anywhere, he was there, looking back at her. She saw the beast that hid beneath his skin, marring his attractiveness to many, but only adding to his fierce beauty to her. Every aspect of his face haunted her dreams, but it was like he was a locked door that she wanted desperately to walk through. She saw his face, but couldn't see what lay behind it. The dreams she had of him each night made her feel odd when she woke up. Kind of alive and excited, but mostly frustrated, irritated and generally out of sorts.

The day before, she had actually snapped at one of her customers who asked her a particularly silly question.

Liliana cancelled all her appointments for the rest of the week. She couldn't afford to alienate the people who counted on her. She had to get her head on straight and get her life back into proper order.

While she showered and changed, Hank's death loomed large in Liliana's mind. The detective laughed at her warnings. He ate the cookies.

Now, he was obsessed with Adalind, the golden-haired hexenbeist. He thought he was falling in love with her, but it was an ugly combination of magic and chemicals. It wasn't real. The only one who could free him now, before his obsession killed him, was Adalind herself.

Wu hadn't listened either. He ate the last cookie.

The pretty fox, Rosalee, found a cure for the immediate symptoms that nearly killed Officer Wu, but it hadn't been enough. He had another obsession and it was still killing him, just more slowly.

Nick, Rosalee and Monroe would find a way to save him from that death, but not until after it had done considerable harm to the nice policeman. Why didn't anyone listen to her?

Someone knocked on the door. Her door. Not the public door that people knocked on normally, the door to her home.

Liliana glanced through the door with her fourth eyes to see who it was. It was Nick. She had been expecting him.

Nick had never come to visit her at her house before, except the one time when he came to accuse her of murder. Usually, they met for practice in the forest. This week, Nick had not come to the forest to train. He had called Monroe and said he was busy.

Nick had been no more busy this week than any other. That wasn't why Nick cancelled practice.

Nick was sad.

Liliana opened the door and left it open for him while she went into the kitchen and got him a beer.

She bought the kind of beer that he and Monroe both liked the week before because she had seen that they both would come visit her.

She handed Nick the beer and sat down on her comfortable overstuffed second-hand couch. She was really getting the hang of this social visiting thing.

Nick followed her in and closed her door behind himself. "Um, hi Lily." He sat down in the armchair next to the couch, perching on the edge rather than settling in comfortably. Something was bothering him and he was nervous about asking.

Liliana looked at him with her third eyes.

"She loves you," Liliana told him. "More than anything else in the world." Watching Nick and Juliet was like watching a romance movie. It made her feel warm, and a little envious. There was nothing about their love that was false or artificial.

It was a good contrast from the disgust she felt when watching Hank and the beast. That was all cold manipulation and sick obsession. Adelind's potion had turned the otherwise very nice Detective Hank into a creepy stalker.

Nick smiled, but his normally radiant smile showed more sadness than joy. "I guess you know why I came."

Nick had finally asked his Juliet to marry him and she had said no. Liliana had known that she would, but telling him that ahead of time would not have helped.

"You don't know how to tell Juliet about you being a Grimm without her thinking you are crazy or she is. And Juliet will not marry you because she knows you are hiding much of yourself, and fears that she doesn't really know who you are anymore."

"Yeah. That's pretty much it in a nutshell." He opened the beer, took a sip and set it down on a coaster on her little hand-made folding end table.

Liliana nodded. She knew why he had come. She also knew that when it came to love, she was completely useless. She had seen love. She recognized it in others. But Liliana had never been in love.

She had had lovers, but that was a thing of the body, generally initiated by men. She found the physical act enjoyable as long as the men had good reasons for wanting her. With some lovers, she had felt friendship or affection. With most, she had simply felt attraction and it had worn off quickly, usually when she realized they imagined someone else when they touched her, or they wanted her for the wrong reasons.

With her mating time coming up in a little over two years, Liliana needed to find something with more depth, something real. She needed to find something like Nick and Juliet had.

"So?" Nick asked. "What can you tell me?"

Liliana had looked and looked. She had not seen any outcome where Nick told Juliet what he was that had not ended badly. The only way Juliet would accept what Nick was would be if she found out on her own.

"I am sorry. There is nothing you can do. But she loves you. You must give her time." Eventually, all the strange things in Nick's life would coalesce in Juliet's mind. It might happen suddenly, like when the ogre attacked them in their home, or it might happen gradually as lots of little things added up. "There might be a time when she begins to see for herself that some things are not as she has been taught." Liliana saw a time in the not-too-distant future when Juliet analyzed hair from a wilderman and began to wonder. "Perhaps, then, if you are careful, you may be able to gently ease her into this new world. But you must be patient."

It was possible that Bud and his family could help ease Juliet's transition into the world of the wesen. But none of those good outcomes were close in time or likely. There were a hundred other outcomes that were all varying levels of bad. Including some where Juliet or Nick died, or ended up hating each other. Liliana had seen a fair number of outcomes that involved restraining orders.

Liliana had even seen one possible future where Juliet shattered Nick's heart badly. As his friend, he came to Liliana for comfort, and eventually, Nick became hers.

The existence of that future intrigued and excited Liliana. She adored the handsome Grimm, but knew that his loyal heart would never betray his Juliet. For a time, she considered advising Nick toward the path that would lead him first to heartbreak and then to her. But even considering doing that was an act of incredible selfishness, and she knew it. She wanted what Nick and Juliet had, but she was not willing to see her favorite Grimm hurt that badly to get it.

At least Monroe seemed to be doing well. He and Rosalee, the pretty fox girl, were slowly moving toward a relationship that one day might be as strong as Nick and Juliet's, only without the Grimm thing to come between them. All they had to deal with was their difference in species. No relationship was without challenges.

"Time and patience, huh?" Nick said. He sighed. "That's all you've got for me?"

"For you, yes."

Nick looked at her with raised brows. "What do you mean?"

"Hank is in a great deal of immediate danger."

"What kind of danger?"

"Adelind, the hexenbiest, has him in a trap. The trap is really for you. Hank's life will be offered to you in exchange for something she wants."

"What does she want?"

"A key."

Nick's nostrils flared and his jaw muscles jumped. "She can't have it."

"You are right to guard the key. You must slay the beast to save Hank."

"You're advising me to kill Adelind?"

"No. Kiss her."

Nick scoffed. "I'd rather kiss a skalengeck."

"It is the only way to save Hank."

"So, you want me to just walk up to Adelind and kiss her?"

"She will ask you for the key in exchange for Hank's life. Fight her as a Grimm, but use no weapons. When you have beaten her, kiss her."

Nick chuckled. "If anyone but you told me that, I'd say they were nuts. But you told me to 'Let Monroe do the rescuing when the dragon took my princess' and …" He shrugged and spread his arms wide.

"And Juliet is unharmed." Liliana smiled. "I like your Juliet. She socked the dragon girl in the jaw." She loved that Nick trusted and followed her advice. It was good that someone did. She looked into Hank's future and was delighted to see that Nick would again do as she said, and Hank would survive.

Nick chuckled. "Now, Juliet carries a gun. Her scores at the target range are nearly as good as mine."

"She is a good match for you, Nick. In time, she will figure out more about your world on her own. Then she will be ready to accept you. I'm sorry that I couldn't give you any better advice."

Nick grinned at her and it was more like his normal shining smile. "I appreciate you trying, Lilly. You've been a huge help to me more than once."

His words made her feel very warm. She looked down at her hands and smiled.

"What about you?" Nick asked.

"What about me?"

"Monroe gives me a hard time because I always ask him for help, but I don't ask him about normal stuff. I'm asking you for help with my love life. How is yours?"

For some reason, an image of Sean Renard flashed in Liliana's mind. "I don't really have a love life."

"Why not? You're a pretty girl. What's stopping you?"

"I'm good at fighting, but I'm not very good with relationships. I keep kissing men who don't love me."

Nick laughed. "That's not really that unusual, you know?"

Liliana tilted her head to the side. Nick knew a lot more about love than she did. It might be her turn to take some advice, rather than giving it.

Nick said, "Love at first sight, or even first kiss, isn't really how it works. Love takes a while to build."

Liliana thought about that. "Did you ever kiss a girl because it was to your advantage and then come to love her later?"

"Not me, no. But Hank's second wife started out as someone's sister that he dated because he lost a bet."

"Detective Hank is not someone whose love life I would want to emulate."

Nick chuckled. "You've got a point there. But the thing is, people can find each other all kinds of strange ways."

Liliana thought about that. The prince had considered her as a possibility for a long term lover. That was because of the advantage sharing venom could give him, but he had also seemed to enjoy her company simply for herself.

Lilly got lost for a while imagining possibilities and looking at images of the dark prince at various points in time. He was really nice to look at.

Nick stayed for a little longer. He finished his beer, stood up, and leaned down to give her a peck on the cheek as he left. "I'm going to head out now, Lilly."

"I am glad you came, Nick. Come and visit me again any time you wish."

Nick smiled. "I will."

It wasn't until a few days later, when it was too late, that Liliana discovered what she had done.

Liliana looked at Nick's future with Juliet, wondering if there might have been some key point that she missed, some turning point that would help Nick find his way past Juliet's hesitation.

The image that assaulted her made her gasp. Juliet lay in the hospital, her eyes drowned in black, her mind fading away to nothingness.

That future hadn't existed before Nick came to visit her.

Liliana's conversation with Nick had to have shifted things, but she couldn't imagine how her advice to give Juliet some time could possibly result in Juliet's death.

What happened?

She followed Juliet backward in time and saw Adelind hand Juliet a cat with drowning black eyes. The cat scratched Juliet and Adelind smiled cruelly.

Why would the hexenbiest hurt Juliet? Surely, the prince had not stooped so low as to order that.

An image flashed that answered her question. Nick held the hexenbiest down and kissed her, just as Liliana had advised him. She bit him, and ingested the blood of the Grimm, destroying her inner beast. Hank woke up from his poisoned sleep. All was well. This was what Liliana had seen and intended.

But Liliana watched Adelind this time. She followed the defeated woman from the fight with the Grimm. She saw Adelind walk into her mother's home, the Grimm's blood on her chin.

She saw both Adelind's mother and the dark prince reject her now that much of her power had been neutralized. She was no longer useful to them.

She also saw what Adelind said as the prince walked in. "I did it for … you."

Adelind had served the prince because she loved him. She had no reason to hurt Nick or Hank other than the prince's command. Adelind had done the cruel things she did for love of Sean Renard.

Liliana had been considering the dark prince as a potential life mate. Now, she wondered if she should reconsider her previous decision and simply let him die. The man had no heart. Any woman who loved him would be setting herself up for heartbreak. Liliana despised Adelind, but at that moment, she felt incredibly sad for the golden-haired girl.

Nick stole the powerful beast spirit inside her that made her special, and Renard cast her aside like an empty glass, drained of wine.

Adelind sought revenge on both Nick and Sean Renard. Juliet's sickness would somehow be that revenge.

This whole new path was Liliana's fault. She gave Nick the advice that led Adelind down that path.

Nick was going to lose his Juliet, and it was Liliana's fault.

What could she possibly do to fix this?


	3. Lowan's Daughter

Lowan's Daughter

Liliana searched constantly for a way to save Juliet, but kept bumping into images of Sean Renard that would not leave her alone. She very firmly ignored the flashes of the prince's face that continually appeared in her dreams and in her fourth eyes when she didn't focus on something else. She couldn't get her unruly mind to stop thinking about him, but she could make sure that it no longer affected her life.

She considered simply killing Adelind, or preventing the woman from doing Juliet harm in some other ways, but some very dark futures came into being when she considered those courses of action. If she tried to help, she might make things far worse.

Liliana decided to wait and watch. Perhaps a new solution would come into being as probabilities shifted. There was a more immediate threat coming, in any case. The day when the two reapers would come to kill her favorite Grimm was almost here. Nick practiced with a will, taking out some of his sadness in combat practice. It was good therapy. Liliana knew that from long experience.

The Grimm's death, that she had seen as certainty a few months before, now was only a tiny flicker of possibility. Nick could handle the reapers now. She was almost certain of it. She planned on being there, though, just in case he needed a hand.

In the meantime, she had neglected her business for too long. Several customers had been put off for weeks, and now she had to make up for it. Liliana spoke with as many as four or five customers a day where she normally limited herself to a maximum of three. That many social interactions and that much exploration into their lives with her fourth eyes could be exhausting. She welcomed the distraction, though. As long as she was searching the lives of her customers for potential danger, and the best paths toward happiness, she wasn't thinking about the beautiful dark prince who had no heart.

A new customer was coming for an appointment in a few minutes. Liliana knew nothing about the woman but her name, Arel Samson. Her name wasn't enough to let Liliana find the woman with her fourth eyes. She had to know what she looked like. So, Liliana was looking forward to meeting someone brand new and completely unknown. It made her a little nervous, but provided an excellent distraction.

She looked around her business space. Every mystic knick knack was perfectly clean of dust and placed for optimum visual impact for new customers. Brightly colored scarves hung to decorate every surface. The little shop looked exactly as it should. She gave the crystal ball a last quick polish with her sleeve to remove a smudge. According to her clocks, it was 9:58. Her new customer was due at 10:00.

Liliana sat in her chair and stared at the door, waiting. At precisely 10:00 and about thirty seconds, just after the clocks stopped chiming, someone knocked on the door. Liliana smiled. She liked customers who were punctual.

She opened the door and froze. There were three of them. Three women. No more than two people had ever come to see her at once.

They were all three very tall and athletic women. One was past fifty, but more fit than most twenty-year-olds. She was a lovely woman with skin as dark as Detective Hank's, high round cheeks, and a shading of iron gray in the braided hair at her temples. Another of the women looked enough like the oldest to be her daughter, and Liliana automatically thought of them as Mother and Daughter. The third had dark brown hair and olive pale skin. She held herself a lot like Liliana did when lots of people looked at her, as if the air around her was heavy.

"I don't have enough chairs."

"I can stand," the daughter said.

"All right." Liliana bowed them into her work space with the usual dramatic flourish of flowing scarf sleeves. "Welcome. Madame Anna sees all. Only the truth of what is, what was and what might be." She used the proper customer voice with the singsong intonation.

She sat down in her wooden chair on one side of the little round table and gestured two of her new customers into the other two chairs. The daughter stood behind her mother with muscular arms crossed in a way that made Liliana think "bodyguard." She had a good stance, solid, grounded and balanced, with knees slightly bent and weight shifted forward.

Liliana opened all of her eyes and looked at her new customers just for a moment. They were all three lions.

The similarity between the two dark women wasn't just superficial. They were definitely mother and child. Her immediate impression of all three women was touchy pride and worry. The older woman seemed to be the leader. The other two took their cues from her.

Liliana looked into her crystal ball. Looking at people for more than a second or two was overwhelming. The ball was where she was expected to look, so it made both her and her customers more comfortable. She started her routine with a gesture to the decorated box with a slot at the top that people put money in. She was one of the few merchants left who dealt only in cash. She had no interest in the hassle of credit cards or taxes. She didn't even have a last name or a birth certificate. It made such things a bit tricky. "Pay me what you feel is fair for truth that cannot be seen by other eyes. I see only what is, what has been, and what might be. Ask and the truth shall be yours."

This was when customers asked her questions. Liliana waited.

The three women looked at each other again. They seemed uncertain.

"My daughter was at the lowan games. You said that you were the daughter of a lowan?" the older woman said.

Liliana nodded. It didn't sound like the usual sort of question, but it was an easy one to answer. "My father was Simon, son of Simeon, king of the lions of Nimea."

The daughter snorted. "You're a liar. That isn't possible."

The mother held up a hand to quiet her daughter. "Forgive Leona, seer. You must know, of course, that the lions of Nimea have been extinct for hundreds of years."

Liliana cocked her head to one side. Normally customers asked her questions about themselves and their own lives, not about hers. "My father left his pride so that his brother could take the throne uncontested. The pride was defeated in battle a few decades later when Simon was far away. Their enemies believed the Nemean lions were too dangerous to be left alive. They slaughtered the entire pride to the last child." She glanced up at the standing daughter for a moment. "The Nemean lions are not extinct, however. I had two brothers. Some of their descendents live in Portland. That is what drew me here originally. It is even possible that we are related." She understood why they would be confused, though. "I have lost track of them over time. My father was over six hundred years old when he died seventy years ago," she added.

"Your father died seventy years ago? How old are you?" the brown-haired woman asked.

"I will be ninety-eight years old, …" Liliana considered the date. She hadn't realized what day it was. "I will be ninety-eight years old tomorrow."

The older woman chuckled warmly, showing large white teeth with a gap between the two front ones. "And I thought I was getting on in years."

Liliana looked at her with all eyes for a moment. "You appear to be in excellent health." She looked forward in time to see how far death was from this woman. "You have many more robust years to live, assuming that you escape being murdered within the next week." Liliana barely flinched as she saw the woman ripped apart.

It was an unfortunate aspect of watching over her favorite Grimm that she had become less affected by constant visions of horrific sudden death. She practically expected it these days.

Liliana looked into the crystal ball with her fourth eyes. Surely, the woman would ask her how to avoid her death. Anticipating the question, Liliana searched for the source of danger, and a moment when it could be safely side-stepped. The woman would be ripped apart by a large group of lowan males. She fought valiantly and took a few of her enemies into death with her. Her daughter fought beside her and took down even more, but in the end, they would be pulled down by sheer numbers and slaughtered.

The vision made Liliana's stomach twist in sadness and horror, despite her recent increased resistance to the sight of bloody death.

"That's not really what we wanted to talk to you about," the elder woman said. "At least, not exactly."

"You do not wish to know how to avoid your own death and the death of your child?" Liliana was astonished.

"Well, we actually already know that. That's why we need your help, seer."

"Ask and I will give you only the truth. I cannot guarantee that it will be what you want to hear."

The woman nodded. "The local lowan king died recently. A new successor has to be chosen. There is some disagreement as to who will be the next king."

"Some disagreement is an understatement, Arel," the brown-haired woman said. "The pride is tearing itself apart."

From what Liliana had seen in her vision, this was literally true.

Leo Taymor had been an unworthy, cruel lying arrogant jerk, but he had held the pride together. His death had implications that the dark prince undoubtedly did not consider when he had the man killed.

"I am sorry. I do not know how I can help."

"Can you tell us who will be chosen?" the brown-haired woman asked.

Liliana looked for the choosing of a new king of lions. She saw a lot of death. Many lowan men fought each other for the right to be king. That was the true and first purpose of the lowan games, not amusement, but a testing and training ground for young lions. And a proving ground for leaders. The strongest would rule.

"I see a very big man with a triskelion tattoo on his forearm and a claw scar over one side of his face that pulls his upper lip into a permanent sneer."

"Tray Kramer," the daughter, Leona, said. Her lips and jaw tightened.

The brown-haired woman seemed to sink in on herself, as if Liliana had placed a huge rock on her. "Oh, God, not Tray."

"If the paths of the future do not change, this man will rule the lions of Oregon," Liliana told them.

The elder woman, Arel, patted the brown-haired woman's back.

Liliana looked for a connection between this woman and the lowan who would soon be king. He saw the man beating her with his fists until she had to go to the hospital. Again and again. The woman always, foolishly, came back to him. Then she had a baby. For a time, he had been gentle with her, but the little boy had barely been toddling when his father aimed a casual kick at him for some annoyance.

Liliana saw the expression on the brown-haired woman's face change as she held her crying baby. She went from afraid to angry. The woman was a lioness underneath the battered wife. She could survive beatings herself, but she would permit no one to beat her child.

She saw Arel bundle the brown-haired woman and her infant son in a coat and rush them in the rain to her car.

Tray, the huge man with the scar, chased them with a shotgun, shouting threats.

Leona drove the car. She and Arel helped to get the woman and her baby away from Tray. The pride took care of its own.

"Tray is your ex-husband," Liliana said, assuming the woman had the good sense to divorce such a man.

The woman shook her head tightly in denial. "He wouldn't sign the papers. I was too scared to push it as long as he left us alone. Now …" She shrugged and put her face in her hands.

Liliana didn't have any desire to see what the brown-haired woman's fate would be if her abusive husband became the next king. She had already seen what would happen to the two women who had helped her get away from him.

"This is not acceptable," Liliana said. "This Tray Kramer is even more unworthy than Leo Taymor. These are not lowan kings. These men would not know honor if it bit them on the leg."

Arel smiled at her. "Spoken like the daughter of a lowan prince."

"Are there no better candidates?" Liliana asked them. "If you could choose the next king, who would you choose?"

"I wish someone like Daniel could be king," the brown-haired woman said.

Leona's permanent scowl faded into a smile filled with love and pride. "Daddy would be a great king."

Arel shook her head. "That's silly talk. Your father is too old. He could never beat Tray in the ring."

Liliana tilted her head considering, then looked into Arel's past. She saw a lowan with skin as dark as midnight and muscles on his muscles. The man was a champion of the old games, when lowans tested their skills against each other as it was meant to be. She saw the same man working a construction business, roofing and framing houses. She saw him smiling and playing with his daughter, teaching her to fight as Liliana's father had taught her.

Liliana smiled sadly. Daniel reminded her of her own father, though they looked nothing alike. It was possible that the blood of her brothers ran in his veins.

"If you believe that Daniel would be a good king, choose a champion who can defeat Tray to fight for him," Liliana told them, wondering why they hadn't already thought of that.

"A champion?" Leona said.

"It's part of our oldest traditions," Arel told her daughter. "A champion can fight for someone else that he feels would make a better king. The champion answers challenges, but the king rules."

"I never heard of that," Leona said.

"It's not a tradition that happens much anymore," Arel said. "If someone wins the challenge, they generally want to rule themselves."

The brown-haired woman shook her head. "Nobody can beat Tray. Leo kept him from challenging with bribes. He knew Tray would mop the floor with him."

Liliana looked into the past and the future, following Tray in several fights, from barroom brawls through ring bouts, and occasional leg breaking enforcement for Leo Taymor. The big lion was a formidable fighter. He was also heavy on his feet and led with his right too often. "I could beat him," Liliana said.

All three women laughed at her.

Liliana looked at them, wondering what she had said that was funny.

They did not believe her. They thought she was joking.

"I defeated a Grimm in single combat," she told them.

They stopped laughing.

Arel asked, "Are you talking about that Grimm that fought in the ring and broke up the games?"

Liliana nodded.

"You beat him?" Leona snorted, in disbelief. "He fought like a lowan, like he'd been in the ring before."

"That is because I trained him. The Grimm is my friend now. I taught him what my father taught me."

Leona did not believe her. "I was there," she said. "I saw you. The Grimm was forced into the ring because of you."

"Leo would have killed him. I knew the Grimm could win in a fair fight. I made sure he got it."

"Could you ask the Grimm to be Daniel's champion?" Arel asked.

"I could." Liliana looked into Nick's future and immediately saw a problem. The reapers were coming for him tomorrow night. The challenge for the lowan king was the same night. Nick could not be in two places at once, and it was important that he be there to protect the beavers.

Liliana had warned Phoebe Wurstner that a dangerous time was coming, and that she needed to take her children and go visit her mother for a while. She had given her word to her loyal customer that her husband, Bud, would be safe. The Grimm would protect him.

"But I will not. The Grimm has other business tomorrow night when the new king will be chosen. Urgent business. People will die if he is not where he should be."

"People will die if Tray becomes king," the brown-haired lioness pointed out.

Liliana looked with her fourth eyes at Daniel, Arel's husband, in the past and the future. She didn't see solid visions of him in the future, only flickery images and impressions. This was normal when she looked at an unlikely future. The brief flashing images that she saw were good. Arel and Leona smiling. The brown-haired woman raising her son in peace. Her son would grow up to be the next king. He would have his father's strength, but his mother would teach him honor and compassion.

From what little Liliana could tell, Daniel would make a good king. But if she were going to risk herself, she had to know that this lion was worthy.

"Arel, I need you to answer a question for me," Liliana said. She didn't normally ask customers questions herself, but this was a special case.

"What is it?"

Liliana looked at her with all her eyes at once. "Do you truly believe that Daniel will make a good king? Is he a lion of honor and strength, justice and fairness?"

"Yes." Arel answered without hesitation. There was no doubt in her mind. She not only loved her husband, she admired him.

Liliana didn't bother looking into the mind of Leona, Daniel's daughter. With few exceptions, all men were heroes in the minds of their daughters.

She looked into the brown-haired woman whose name she didn't even know. "What is your name?"

"Marilyn Kramer."

"Do you believe this as well, Marilyn?" she asked.

"Daniel would be the best possible king we could have." There was little hope in the woman's heart. She didn't believe that Daniel could be king, but there was a great deal of longing. Marilyn genuinely believed in Daniel. The elder lion had no reason to protect her, other than pride loyalty. Daniel had taken Marilyn and her son in and sheltered them, simply because it was the right thing to do.

"I will meet Daniel. If he is the lion that you believe he is, I will be his champion."

"Do you really think you can win?" Arel asked.

Liliana looked into the future to see her own chances in the ring against Tray Kramer. Possibilities flickered. Some of them involved her own brutal death. Some involved his. She might win. She might not.

"It is possible. If I do not, you will die. Your daughter will die." She turned to the brown-haired lioness, Marilyn. "You will die, and your son will be raised to be like his father."

Marilyn woged and growled a lion's deep warning. "I would kill my own son before I would see him become like Tray."

Liliana looked into her future. "That is also a possibility."

All three of her customers looked grim. Their shoulders slumped in defeat.

"There is another, equally likely possibility, though," she offered them.

They looked at her with a little hope.

"I could win. Your Daniel could be king." She looked at Marilyn. "And your son would be king after him."

The brown-haired lioness shifted back to her human face, and smiled sadly at Liliana. "Thank you for being willing to try."

"Why would you risk your life for us?" Leona asked. "You're not even a lowan."

"I am a lowan's daughter."


	4. Lion King's Champion

Lion King's Champion

Liliana met Daniel and looked into him. He was the man that his wife, daughter and friend believed him to be. He was very strong-willed and proud, but that was tempered with compassion and deep love for his family and loyalty to his pride. He intended to fight Tray in the ring himself, to challenge for the right to be king, despite the fact that he was well past fifty and Tray Kramer was a lion in his prime.

That was a problem.

"You cannot fight, Daniel. There is no possibility that you will win. Tray will kill you," Liliana told the elder lowan outside the empty warehouse where the entire lowan pride over the age of fifteen had gathered.

"Then I'll lose," the old lion said stubbornly. "I'll take my chances."

Arel and Leona stood with Liliana, trying to convince Daniel Samson, the former lowan champion, that the slender, petite spider girl should fight in his place.

Marilyn had stayed home with her son. Liliana knew that she was packing. She intended to get herself and her son out of Oregon. She did not believe Liliana could win.

Liliana approved. Regardless of whether Liliana won or lost, Marilyn and her son would be safe. She had already saved someone, and she hadn't fought the battle yet.

Daniel's arms were bigger around than Liliana's thighs, and he stood nearly six and a half feet tall. There was some softness around the old lion's middle, but he was still an imposing figure.

"It is not just your own chances that you take, Daniel, but the chances of every lowan in Oregon. If Tray Kramer becomes the new king of lions, your wife and daughter will die. And the lowans of Oregon will once again be ruled by a man who knows nothing of honor or justice."

"Maybe daddy's right," Leona said. "Maybe he can beat Tray."

Liliana smiled. A man like Daniel would look ten feet tall to his daughter.

"There is only one way to settle this." Liliana faced the lion, and lifted her fists. She would not use her arm blades on the man she was supposed to be fighting FOR. "Fight me."

He laughed, and she footswept him onto his butt.

It took her less than a minute to convince Daniel that she had a better chance of defeating Tray than he did.

"It just doesn't seem right, though, someone else winning the crown for me," Daniel told Liliana as they walked into the old warehouse. "The games are supposed to be the test for kings."

Liliana faced the man who should be king of the lions of Oregon. "I can fight, but I am no leader. I am not even a lowan. No one would follow me. I can pass this test for you. But the Oregon pride has not had a worthy leader in decades. They will not be easy to lead. Once you are king, then your test begins."

Daniel squeezed her shoulder with a massive paw just before they went in. "No matter how this turns out. Thank you. I don't know why you're doing this, though. This isn't even your fight."

Liliana smiled at his belt buckle. "If I die, take your wife and daughter and get out of town immediately."

Daniel grumbled low in his throat, a lion's growl in human form. "I'm not inclined to run."

"I know. And because of that, you and your family will die." Liliana held onto Daniel's tree trunk arm, and whispered urgently to him before they got to the crowd that she knew would all but shut her down. "I have asked for no payment for fighting for you. If I die, take your family and run. Leave Portland immediately. This is what I ask in return for risking my life for you. Give me your word."

The old lion looked down at her, jaw clenching and unclenching as he considered. "All right. I don't like it, but … You have my word."

Liliana smiled. She didn't look into the future to see if Daniel, Arel and Leona would survive. She believed Daniel would at least try to get away, since he was a man whose word meant something. If Liliana died tonight, she would rather die believing that she had at least bought a few more good lives with her blood.

They walked into the building, Liliana in the middle, surrounded by the lion family. "Daniel," she said, as she looked past him to more than a hundred lions, men and women, surrounding a huge cage that looked all too familiar.

"What else do you want?" His voice was wary, like he expected her to extort something out of him.

"I'm not real good with crowds. Just get me into the ring and put a sword and shield in my hand. I'll be okay after that."

"What do you mean you're not good with crowds?" Arel asked her.

"You'll see." Liliana hunched into herself as if she were walking into a hurricane and hid behind the broad wall of Daniel's body. Arel and Leona, closed ranks on either side of her, a half step behind the big man.

They waded into the crowd. Unlike the unruly shouting crowd at the illegal lowan games, these lions made less noise, but the noises made were uglier. There was a fair amount of growling and arguing. These lions were not here for a bit of violent, bloody fun. This was deadly serious. Their futures were being decided, and everyone wanted to have a say.

Daniel woged and roared like the MGM lion as he walked in. Everyone fell silent.

Liliana huddled behind him, trying to be as small and inconspicuous as possible, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.

"I am the king of lions!" Daniel roared, declaring his claim. "Who here would follow me?"

"I will," Arel and Leona roared from either side of him.

A few other lions' voices declared for Daniel in the crowd. Liliana was surprised. They had to know that Daniel couldn't win, but they supported his claim nonetheless. It spoke volumes for the respect the old lion had earned within his pride.

There was a commotion in the crowd. A great deal of shouting and growling.

Liliana cringed, and tried to shrink even further into herself. All of her eyes were closed. She held onto the back of Daniel's belt as a guide so she wouldn't get lost in the crowd. She couldn't handle this many people together. The overwhelming emotions in the room would assault her and shut her mind down if she opened her third eyes. She hunched her shoulders and trusted the old lion to guide her, blind, through a crowd of angry lowans.

"I am the king of lions," another deep male voice roared from the crowd. "Do you challenge me?"

A chorus of roars of support so loud it vibrated the floor beneath her feet followed. Tray Kramer had many followers. Liliana suspected that most of them were currying favor with the most likely winner. The rest of the lions who kept silent disliked him enough to not declare for him, even though they believed he would win. They were too afraid of what he would do to them later to dare to oppose him.

"Members of the pride have spoken for me. I have the right to challenge," Daniel shouted after several seconds when the noise level finally fell. "You must face my champion in the ring of honor."

Uh oh.

There was a lot of confused talking among the pride. Most of the older members knew the tradition. Some of the younger ones didn't. Some angrily questioned. Some explained. Others argued.

Finally, the same loud voice as before, which Liliana knew must belong to Tray Kramer, roared, "Enough!" The voice was much closer now. Tray must have worked his way to them through the crowd.

"Are you too chicken to face me yourself, old man?" Tray spoke now from directly in front of Daniel.

Daniel growled low. "I'm smart enough to choose what's best for the pride, not just for my own pride."

Grumbles of approval came from behind Liliana. She realized that the voices that had spoken for Daniel had worked their way through the crowd to his side. She stood in the center of a small island of supporters in a sea of enemies and those too cowed to take sides.

"Who would be dumb enough to fight for you, old man, and not keep the crown for himself?"

"The daughter of a lowan prince." Daniel said. "She's not a lowan and has no claim to the crown, but she trained the Grimm who defeated Leo's ring champion." Daniel reached an arm behind himself, put it around Liliana's shoulders and brought her forward.

Liliana hugged herself tight and kept her eyes tightly closed. She knew everyone in the room was staring at her, or trying to see her through the generally much taller crowd, but she couldn't bear to look.

There was a confused muttering. A boom of laughter from Tray, started off a chain reaction of nervous laughter from the lions around him.

Daniel's big hands rested on Liliana's hunched shoulders. He squeezed gently, grounding her in the here and now, or her mind might have given up and gone away.

Daniel waited for the laughter to die down. "I have the right to choose any champion willing to fight for me. Anna is willing to put her life on the line to support my claim." The lions at their backs, Daniel's supporters, made sounds of surprise.

"You can't be serious?" Tray said, a laugh still in his loud voice. "I'll slaughter that little girl."

"We will see. Challenge has been fairly issued. You must face Anna in the ring of honor," Daniel's dignity quieted the unruly crowd. He added with a smile in his own voice, "Unless you're afraid to fight her?"

Tray's answer was a growl that turned away and faded into the crowd.

The crowd erupted in cheers.

Daniel gently guided Liliana toward the ring. "Are you sure about this?" he whispered to her.

Liliana nodded. It was all she could manage.

A sword was thrust into her right hand and a shield buckled onto her left arm. That felt right. It felt natural.

Combat was good therapy. Her parents had always used combat practice to bring her back when her mind was overloaded by her new senses. Focus was essential in combat. All that mattered was the here and the now. In combat, all of the people were just background. If they were not potential threats or potential allies, then they were superfluous.

Liliana scanned the area quickly with both her human eyes and her second eyes to assess her situation.

She stood at one end of the lowans' arena cage. Tray stood at the other end, another lowan strapping a shield to his arm.

Daniel lingered beside her. The fight would not begin until the non-combatants left the cage.

One face stood out in her quick scan of the crowd, a familiar face, tall and cool and aloof among the emotionally charged lions.

The prince stood to her right, watching from just outside the bars.

She walked up to him, Daniel beside her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Liliana?" the prince asked. His voice was tight with controlled worry or anger. She couldn't tell which.

"What the hell are you doing here, Sean Renard?" she asked him back. She did not feel like answering the prince's questions. The memory of how badly he had treated the beast who loved him was still fresh in her mind. The consequences of his casual cruelty would cost Juliet her life unless Liliana found a solution.

"I thought I was here to witness the succession of the lowens in my canton. But apparently, I'm here to watch you commit suicide."

"Someone might think you actually gave a damn," Liliana said. "But you have no heart, so that could not be true."

The prince's face darkened with anger or offense. "I have a heart."

Liliana said, "You told the golden-haired beast that the fastest way to a man's heart was through his friends, when you used her love to make her serve you. You might not remember it, since it was before you cast her aside like used Kleenex. But you were wrong."

Renard's face darkened further, jaw clenching hard. "Wrong about what?"

Liliana tilted the sword in her hand through the open foot wide squares of the cage bars. The sharp tip touched the prince's chest before he could move. "The fastest way to a man's heart is through the third and fourth rib on the left side. Maybe I should see if you do, in fact, have a heart."

Daniel stood tense beside her, but said nothing. He didn't know what was going on between her and Renard, but he clearly had no intention of interfering, even if she killed the prince of Portland right there in front of him. Daniel probably assumed that she had a good reason.

Liliana wasn't sure if he was right. Her reasons were confused and emotional and not very rational.

Renard stood very still. His face calmed, became blank of expression. "Have I given you some reason to be angry with me, Liliana? From our last meeting, I thought you had decided to be my ally." His voice was as calm as his face. Liliana knew it was control. He felt. She didn't know if he felt angry or hurt or afraid, but she knew the blank face and voice were a mask.

Liliana sighed and some of the anger drained from her. "You have done nothing but be yourself. I am angry because you are not the sort of man to be kind to people who love you, and I wish that you were." She pulled her sword tip away from the prince's chest, noting the tiny spot of blood on his white shirt. If she had a hand free, she would wipe it away. "There is a high probability that I will not live through the next five minutes. If that happens, I will not be there when death comes for you." She blinked. Her human eyes watered a little as she realized that the prince would die if she did. She risked not just her own life, but his.

The prince reached through the bars and tilted her chin up to face him. His thumb was gentle on her cheek. "Would you regret that?"

"Yes," she admitted, looking into green eyes that forbade her to look through them to the complexly layered soul beneath. The hundreds of lowans all around her; the cage that imprisoned her; the lion who would be king beside her; the weapons in her hand; all of it faded to meaninglessness.

Sean Renard's thumb stroked her cheek. Only that tiny motion mattered.

"I would very much like it if you would kiss me again," Liliana told him.

His lips quirked slightly on both corners. She had pleased him. "Survive the fight, and I will," he promised.

Liliana smiled wide, showing him her fangs. "You had better make it a good one."

He chuckled low. "I will." He returned her fierce smile with one of his own. "You had better live to collect it." There was definitely worry in his eyes.

It made Liliana's heart soar. "I will do my best."

"Are you done?" Tray's gruff voice said. "I'd like to get this over with." His second had left the ring. He faced her alone, with a mace as big as her head, and a massive shield she would have had trouble even lifting.

Liliana looked at her enemy with both her human eyes and her second eyes that saw in different spectrums. She saw what most others could not. There was extra heat around his left knee, a small slash of blood on his left thigh, and a heated swelling under his right eye.

Tray Kramer had already faced at least one other challenger today, perhaps more. He showed signs of fatigue, but there had been plenty of time to recover from his previous bout. He was a seasoned fighter. The minor injuries her second eyes spotted would not slow him down a great deal, but they might give her some clues to weak points she could exploit.

"I am ready," she told Daniel.

The old lion reluctantly left the ring and closed the cage door behind himself.

Tray immediately attacked her.


	5. Lion Versus Spider

Lion Versus Spider

The lowan the size of a gorilla bore down on the slender, petite spider woman like a semi truck heading for a doe.

Unlike the doe, Liliana did not freeze. She dodged nimbly to one side, danced past the massive lion, and trailed the tip of her sword across his upper left arm, leaving a scarlet path.

Tray turned on his toes, faster than she expected, and struck out at her with the massive mace.

Liliana turned her shield at an angle so that the mace struck it a glancing blow. It was still enough to throw her back hard against the bars of the cage.

Her enemy wasted no time following up his advantage. The mace came at her head with crushing force.

Liliana ducked and danced away from the restricting bars.

Tray's foot flew out, trying to trip her or strike her legs.

She leapt up and over. She turned her dodge into a driving thrust toward the lion's body.

Tray bashed her sword aside with his shield hard enough to rip the sword from her hands and send it flying across the cage.

His mace followed up the defense with a powerful attack.

Liliana barely got her shield up in time. She took the full force of the heavy mace driven by the superhuman power of the lion's body directly on her shield.

The force of the blow lifted her off her feet and flung her clear to the other side of the cage. She heard a snap as the mace connected and her arm went numb. Her shield was smashed concave by the force of the blow and ripped off her arm as she flew through the air.

Liliana tucked, put out her right hand, touched the concrete floor with it as it flew by and flipped herself, so she landed lightly on her feet.

She had no weapons left, so she flicked her wrists to pop out her arm blades.

Sickening pain flashed up her left arm as the blade came out on that side. She looked. With her second eyes, she could see that both of her arm bones were broken. Liliana staggered a step, steadied her left arm with her right, and flicked the left blade back in. That caused more blinding pain, but the unbroken bone blade stabilized her arm like a living splint. She couldn't use the blade, or the arm.

She looked up and saw Tray bearing down on her again.

She realized then that she was making a potentially fatal mistake. She fought a lowan as if she were a lowan. She was a lowan's daughter, but she was also her mother's daughter. Tray was a ring champion. This was his element. If she continued fighting him on his own terms, he would slaughter her.

She had to fight him as a spider.

As the massive lion bore down on her with a wicked smile on his scarred face for what he thought would be a finishing strike, Liliana leapt up and to the side, left arm hugged into her body to protect it.

She caught one of the bars of the cage with her right hand and flipped her feet up until she did a handstand, toes pointed until they went through the bars at the top of the cage. She caught her ankles in the ceiling bars and swung forward, reaching down to slash Tray across the shoulders with her right arm blade as he charged by under her.

Tray roared in a lion's expression of pain and rage. The cut across his shoulders was deep and bloody, but not enough to stop him.

Liliana flipped and dropped back lightly to the concrete floor. She attached a silk line from the spinneret on her right wrist to the bars of the cage down low, about two feet off the floor, dove into a somersault as the massive lion charged her again, danced to his left, and yanked the line.

The lion tripped. He rolled back to his feet on the other side of the cage, mace and shield still in hand.

Liliana had bought herself enough time to climb the side of the cage up to the top again. The use of only one hand slowed her a little, but not much. She had spent a lot of her life dangling from her ankles or her knees on a trapeze or a silk line, dancing and flying far above the heads of fascinated spectators.

She attached a line, held it with her good hand and swung down, deliberately missing the lion, making him reach out off balance to try to hit her, putting all of his weight on his bruised left knee.

She bounced off the other side of the cage to reverse direction and hit that knee with both heels and the full weight of her body.

She heard and felt the crunch.

Everyone heard the lion's roar of pain.

Tray staggered, and for just a moment, his guard dropped.

"This is for Marilyn," she said softly. She released her line. She leapt onto the lion's shield, forcing it down another few inches to expose the lion's neck.

He swung his mace toward her full force. If it hit, she would die.

She swept her razor sharp arm blade across his throat, lightning swift, with every ounce of strength she had behind it.

The lowan champion's head fell off backward. His weapon dropped from limp fingers.

Her stroke sent a trail of blood flying in a circle that caught nearly every spectator in the front row. Tray's blood spattered her as well, including a small bit of warm spray that touched her cheek. The crowd that had been shouting and growling in a cacophony of noise that was so ubiquitous, Liliana had long since ceased to hear it, went silent with a collective gasp of shock.

Liliana rode the twitching body to the ground.

She stood on the lowan's shield on top of his massive chest and lifted her head to the ceiling, too drunk with battle rage to care that everyone was staring at her. "Daniel Samson is the king of the lions of Oregon!" she shouted. "Anyone who says different must face me!"

"Who challenges Daniel?" she shouted. She looked around in a circle with both her human eyes and her second eyes, searching for enemies.

No one spoke.

Lions dropped their eyes as she looked at them.

Only one man looked back at her, Sean Renard. He met her gaze with one as fierce as her own. His face shone with some intense emotion she couldn't name. She wished that she had not given her word not to look into the dark prince. She would have given anything to know what he thought and felt in that moment.

Arel Samson's voice broke the tense silence. "Daniel is king!" she shouted.

Every face but hers and Renard's shifted to fur and fang and roared in a wave of deep sound that rumbled Liliana's belly and shook the rafters of the old warehouse.

Daniel was mobbed by lions shouting their jubilation. Strong shoulders lifted the big old lowan and carried him away. Even most of the lions who had claimed to support Tray showed delight that Daniel would be king instead.

Liliana felt a little lost as the lion pride swept away from her, leaving her standing in the cage with a dead body. She hated cages. Battle rage still sang in her blood from defeating a lion, and she was stymied by a cage.

The latch on the cage door had been designed to be unreachable from the inside. With both arms in good shape, Liliana could probably have found a way to get out. Probably.

The pool of blood around Tray spread until it touched her satin ballet slippers. There was no place in the cage to stand that wasn't covered in blood. So, she didn't bother to move.

Sean Renard opened the door to the cage, bent down and held a hand out to Liliana.

She walked out, head high, adrenaline singing in her veins, making even the throbbing pain in her arm fade to unimportance.

She tried to wipe the blood off her cheek, but there was more on her hand, so she just smeared it.

Liliana had threatened the prince's life. He might take exception to her sword threatening his heart. She had also committed bloody murder right in front of a police captain.

She wondered what he would do about it.

Renard wiped her cheek gently with a white handkerchief. He handed it to her when he was done, and she used it to wipe the blood off her right hand. Her broken left arm she still held cradled against her chest.

She looked up at him for a moment, wondering again what lay behind his unreadable eyes.

He cupped her face in his hands and leaned in close, hesitating an inch from her lips, making the kiss her choice.

Liliana closed the distance, and realized that she had permission now to look. She had given her word that she would not look into his mind except when they were kissing.

He kissed her gently at first, lips just brushing hers.

She looked into him with her third eyes and closed the rest. She saw overwhelming relief, intense admiration, and a soaring pride, as if she were in some way his, and had made him proud. There was calculation underneath, the thought that an ally such as her would be tremendously valuable, but drowning that bit of cold calculation was a volcano of desire. Sean Renard wanted her. He wanted to own her. He wanted to possess her. He wanted to control her. But most of all, right then, he wanted to sink himself into her body, and bind her to him in the most primitive of ways.

His kiss deepened, growing hungrier, more demanding.

Liliana made a little sound in the back of her throat as he kissed her until she was breathless. Her knees trembled. The lowan champion could not weaken her with a mace, but this bastard prince had done it with a kiss.

She pushed against his chest with her one good hand, so that she could take a step back from him, to give her head a chance to clear.

She licked her lips. "You are a man of your word."

Renard gave her a broad smile that reached his eyes and looked hungry.

The dark prince wanted her. He didn't love her, and probably never would, but he desired the power and fierce, dark beauty in her, just as she did in him.

She remembered what Nick had said about love growing over time.

It might happen. It might not.

"I looked into you," she told him.

"I know."

"Are you going to start pointing guns at me again?"

His lips twitched a little. Amusement tempered by heat. "Do you still want to find out if I have a heart the bloody way?"

"I know you have a heart. I feel it." His heart beat fast beneath her fingers.

He covered her small hand with his, holding it tight to his chest.

She let her arm bend, so that she was not holding him nearly so far away. She didn't want him to be that far away.

"It's my birthday," she told Sean Renard, not even certain why it mattered. She had somehow moved so close to him that she could feel the heat of his body through their clothes.

"Happy birthday," he said, the usual social response, spoken with heat that made the words just a carrier. "How old are you?"

"Ninety-eight."

His lip twitched with amusement. "You're very spry for your age."

She smiled back at him. "Spinnesehen live long lives. As do our mates."

Liliana decided to take her chances with his heart. He had one. She would fight to make it hers. "Take me home," she ordered the prince.

He extended an arm to her, in an old-fashioned gesture, offering her a lady's escort.

She took it.


	6. Trust and Loyalty

Trust and Loyalty

As the prince drove her home, Liliana stripped off her blouse that was coated in blood, and her skirt as well. The skirt was mostly clean of blood. She used it to make a makeshift sling for her broken arm.

The prince had trouble keeping his eyes on the road.

She wore a black leotard underneath that hid the few spots of blood on it, warm powder blue tights, ripped in a couple of places, and matching ballet slippers that she would have to trash when she got home. The blood stains would never come out of the satin.

She opened her fourth eyes to check on her favorite Grimm. As she expected, Nick handled both reapers valiantly on his own. It was a good thing, too. Liliana was not in any shape after her battle with the lowan champion to help him.

Once the adrenaline rush wore off, she found herself overwhelmed with exhaustion and pain. As badly as both she and Sean might desire each other, there was no chance of them consummating anything that night.

"Nick is alive," she informed the prince.

He raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't he be?"

"The two reapers I spoke to you about tried to kill him tonight. Nick was ready for them. Only their heads will go home."

The prince smiled for a fraction of a second, that twitch of lips on both sides of his mouth that said he was pleased. Liliana was reminded of that sense of pride in her accomplishment that she had seen in him. He thought of her as his, and therefore was pleased when she fought well.

He thought of Nick as his Grimm. Nick didn't even know that his captain was more than a captain, but Sean still thought of the Grimm possessively. Nick worked for him. Sean Renard wanted the Grimm's skill and reputation on his side, so he thought of the Grimm as already his.

"That was your doing, wasn't it?" the prince asked her.

"It was Nick's doing to defeat them. He fought valiantly. I only gave him a warning, and the training he needed so he would be ready."

He nodded understanding, eyes on the road. "You told him how to defeat Adelind, too, didn't you?"

"Yes." This was a dangerous turn of conversation.

"Did you tell him who sent her?" He asked it in the same bland voice, but she wasn't fooled. The question was a trap.

"No." Liliana sighed. "I do not tell him your secrets, nor will I tell you his. So, do not ask."

He considered that. "You're in a delicate position."

"You should tell him who you are."

"I will. When the time is right."

"Woolsey did not deserve the death you gave him after decades of loyal service to your family, but I understand why you did it. Your cousin should have known better than to threaten you. He deserved his answer."

His eyes flickered off the road to her and back. "You know about that?"

"Nick does not. You covered your tracks well."

"Why did you bring it up?"

"I know your family puts a lot of pressure on you to get the key. Don't give into their pressure again. They will make you and Nick enemies when you should be allies. Tell the Grimm who you are. Let him know that you have his back. Once he is your ally, then the key will be yours by extension."

"I don't like being told what to do." His voice had an edge of warning. She was treading in dangerous territory.

"People pay me for advice. Sometimes, I give advice for free to people I like. It's usually good advice. Some people take my advice and prosper from it. Some choose not to take my advice." Liliana shrugged minimally with just one shoulder. The other one hurt too much to move.

They drove in silence while the prince thought about that for a while.

Liliana fell asleep.

She woke up when Sean unbuckled her seatbelt. She opened several eyes and looked around. She was in front of her own house. She started to get up. An involuntary moan of pain escaped her. Deep bruises covered more than half of her body in addition to the broken arm, and somewhere along the way she must have twisted her ankle. She didn't even feel it at the time. She felt everything now, as if her entire body were one big battered nerve.

The prince lifted her out of the car into his arms as easily as if she were a child.

"Are you sure you don't need to go to a hospital?" he asked her.

"Nothing they could do would help. I will heal. If I ever do need help, take me to the spice shop downtown. The fuschbau woman who owns it is knowledgeable in wesen medicines. You know the one? Her brother was murdered there not long ago."

He nodded. "I know it."

Liliana's front door was unlocked. She only locked it at times when she saw some reason to.

Renard opened the door while holding her full hundred-ten pound weight in one arm.

He carried her straight to her bedroom, with some direction from her, and laid her in her bed. He slipped off her shoes, tucked her in, then knelt beside the bed, so he faced her on her level.

"Thank you," she said, and cupped his cheek in her hand. It was far more tender care than she expected from him. Perhaps his heart was not as cold as she thought. She wanted him to kiss her again, but they both would want more, and she was not in any shape for it.

"Does Nick take your advice?" he asked her. He had been thinking while she slept.

"Nick is alive tonight and the reapers are not because he trusted me. Hank is alive, too, because Nick trusted me. Adelind would have let Hank die, you know, just out of spite, even if Nick gave her the key."

Sean brushed her hair back from her face. "Can I trust you?" he asked.

"I am not perfect, Sean. I make mistakes, but I would never give you advice if I didn't think it would benefit you. I will never give you advice that would hurt Nick, though, even if it would benefit you."

"Your loyalty is to Nick first?"

Liliana thought about that. It was a difficult question to answer. Her pull toward the dark prince seemed to grow stronger every time she spoke with him.

Nick was her friend. She adored him. And he was a good man who always tried to do the right thing. Nick did what he believed was in the best interest of everyone.

Sean Renard was not a good man. He was a beautiful man, a compelling and powerful man, and in his own way, an honorable man, but in the end, Sean Renard did what was in the best interests of Sean Renard.

Liliana could not be angry with the dark prince for being himself, but she knew who she would choose to fight beside if the two men became enemies.

"My first loyalty is to the wesen of Portland. This city needs Nick. He brings us justice with compassion. We need you, too. You bring order and the strength of will to defend us from powerful outside forces." It sounded good, and was true, but it avoided the real question and they both knew it.

"That's the first time you haven't answered a question I asked you," Sean said.

Liliana sighed and told him what he wanted to know, even though she knew he wouldn't like it. "I will do what I can to keep Nick safe, even from you."

The prince's face hardened.

"You said that you like me because I tell you only the truth. You must accept that the unvarnished truth will not always be what you want to hear."

His lips twisted just a little, not quite amusement. Irony, perhaps. He nodded. "Fair enough."

Liliana touched his handsome face, tracing the outlines of the beast that lay within.

He stiffened and pulled away from her hand as he realized what she was doing.

"I have looked inside you, Sean Renard. I have seen the faces you hide. Knowing you, I desire all that you are, and I would risk my own life to keep you safe."

Something softened his eyes, some deep emotion that slipped past his tight control. "I couldn't ask much more than that."

He leaned down and kissed her. She looked into him during the kiss, and saw a promise of far more another time.

"I'll come back when you're feeling better."

Liliana smiled at him. "Spinnesehen heal quickly."

He left with a chuckle. "I hope so."


	7. Appreciation, Kisses & Pie

Appreciation, Kisses, and Pie

The next morning, Liliana slept until 9:42, and she had her first customer appointment, Phoebe Wurstner, at 10:00. The spider girl groaned as she rolled out of bed, still in her torn tights and bloodstained leotard. She would have loved to take a very long hot bath, but she only had a few minutes.

She showered as quickly as she could, but it still took quite a bit longer than it should have. There was no part of her body that didn't hurt. Her ankle was badly swollen and her left arm was useless. She pulled on a leotard without bothering with tights or shoes, dropped a flowy homemade scarf blouse over it and pulled on a skirt made of more colorful silk scarves.

She took another scarf and tied it around her shoulder to make a sling for her broken arm. Another scarf, a knitted one with some elasticity, made a serviceable ace bandage for her swollen ankle.

Her stomach rumbled loudly, but she ignored it. She could already hear insistent knocking at her business door.

She limped into the one room of her house that was set aside for her business, and opened the door.

Phoebe held an apple pie in one hand. The other hand went over her mouth. "Oh! Madame Anna, what happened to you?"

"I was very nearly killed by a lowan." Liliana didn't wait for Phoebe to come in. She just left the door open and limped over to her normal chair at the little round table with the crystal ball.

"How? I mean, didn't you see him coming?"

"I did, yes. Some lionesses asked me for help. They wanted the Grimm to fight for them, but I told them he was busy last night, so I would fight instead."

"Oh." Phoebe's hand went over her mouth again. "Oh."

"I had intended to cancel our appointment today, Phoebe, but I overslept and didn't get a chance to call you."

"That's okay. I just, you know, wanted to thank you. You told me the Grimm would keep Bud safe, and warned me it was a dangerous time. You were so right. But, I guess, you know that."

"Yes."

"Well, so, here. I made you an apple pie." Phoebe gave her the pie. "I know it isn't anything special, but …"

Liliana's stomach rumbled again. "I like apple pie. Thank you." Phoebe Wurstner was an excellent cook. And considering Liliana's current mobility issues, she might have to live on that pie for a few days. Standing up in her kitchen to cook was out of the question.

"A pie doesn't really seem like enough. I mean, you've done so much for us."

"Phoebe, you are one of my best customers. You always pay me well. It is enough. The Grimm did the work. I only let you know that you could trust him."

"And apparently, you fought a lowan so that the Grimm would be there to protect Bud."

"I gave you my word the Grimm would be there."

"Oh, Anna." Phoebe blinked real fast a few times then threw herself at Liliana.

Liliana almost punched her best customer out of defensive reflex, but managed to stop herself in time. She grunted in pain as Phoebe hugged her.

The beaver woman apologized so profusely that she stumbled over her words and made very little sense.

Liliana managed to give her a smile. "It's all right, Phoebe. I had my own reasons for fighting the lowan."

"Is there anything you need? Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I'm not going to be able to cook for a few days."

"Don't you worry about a thing. I'll make one of my chicken casseroles and bring it over right away."

"Thank you. That would be wonderful." Liliana stood up. "I need to call my other customers and cancel my appointments so I can go back to bed."

"Oh, of course, you poor dear. I'll get out of your way."

Phoebe left, with several more expressions of sympathy and gratitude mixed in with apologies.

One thing Liliana liked about the beavers, she never had to wonder what they meant.

Liliana ate pie for breakfast and made her phone calls.

She limped back to her bed, wondering if she could maybe get that hot bath now, or if she would rather just go back to sleep.

Someone knocked on her business door again.

Liliana sighed, and limped back to her work space.

She opened the door without bothering to look. If it was an enemy, he could just kill her. She would feel better.

It was Marilyn, the brown-haired lioness. She had her little toddler son by the hand on one side and a large duffel bag in the other hand.

Liliana tilted her head to the side. "Why are you here, Marilyn?"

"Oh!" Marilyn covered her mouth in shock, just like Phoebe did when she got her first look at Liliana. Liliana hadn't had a chance to look in a mirror, but she suspected she wasn't looking her best.

Liliana waited with something she wasn't used to, impatience. Her ankle hurt. She needed to sit down and put it up, preferably with ice. "Why are you here, Marilyn?" she asked again.

"I just wanted to … thank you. And introduce you to my son, Simon."

Liliana blinked. "Your son's name is Simon?" Liliana looked at the tiny lowan. The brown-haired boy glared back at her over his thumb stuck in his mouth.

"Yeah, I thought maybe you would want to meet him. He's named after my great-grandfather. My grandfather used to tell me stories about him that I thought were just made up. But after what you told me the other day, …" She smiled. "Well, it's possible that we're related."

Liliana extended a hand formally. "I am honored to meet you, little lion prince. You have my father's name. I hope you live up to it."

The boy looked at her hand for a moment, then up at his mother who nodded encouragingly.

The boy pulled his thumb out of his mouth long enough to squeeze Liliana's hand.

The little boy's hand was slick with saliva and possibly some snot.

Liliana wiped her hand on her skirt. "Was there anything else?" she asked Marilyn. "I am in pain and would like to lie down."

"Of course. I'm sorry. It's just that me and Simon have our lives back because of you and well, we didn't even pay you."

Liliana shrugged. "I did not want another unworthy lion king in Portland. I am pleased that Daniel is king. I am pleased that I was able to help. I would really like to lie down now."

"Right. Of course, but here."

Marily set the duffel bag inside Liliana's door.

Liliana looked inside the bag with her fourth eyes. Money. The bag was full of cash. A lot of cash. In mostly fifties and hundreds with some twenties. "Why are you giving me a bag full of money?"

"Leo gave Tray bribes and his share of the take from the games in cash. Tray never spent any of it. Called it our savings account. I don't want any of that money. I thought you should have it."

"Why?"

"Well, you said that we should pay you whatever we thought was fair. For what you did, I think this isn't really enough. Simon and I owe you the rest of our lives, but … " She shrugged. "I want you to have it."

"Okay. Thank you. I'm going to go lie down now."

Marilyn smiled. "Thank you again."

"You're welcome."

Liliana closed the door and looked at the bag full of money. It was a really big bag. There was no way she wanted to pick it up right now. It didn't seem like the best place to leave a bag full of money, right in the middle of her shop by the door.

She decided she would move it later.

She limped back into her living space.

Someone knocked on her door just as she closed the door between the business room and the rest of her house.

Liliana sighed. The knock was on her home door this time.

She limped over and opened the door. "What?"

It was Nick.

Nick looked puzzled. "That's usually the kind of greeting I get from Monroe." Then he really looked at her. "What happened to you?"

"I am sorry, Nick. I really need to lie down." Liliana left the door open and limped over to the couch. She clearly wasn't going to get that hot bath. "I killed a lowan last night."

Nick followed her in.

Liliana put her sprained ankle up on the arm of her couch and leaned back facing the big overstuffed armchair that Nick sat in the last time he came to visit her. "There is beer in the refrigerator," she told him.

"I'm good, but you're clearly not." He hovered over her a little. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"You could get me some ice in a towel for my sprained ankle, and maybe another one for my broken arm."

"Sure." He went into the kitchen and puttered for a minute. "Is that apple pie?"

"Yes. Phoebe Wurstner made it. It's very good. You can have a piece."

"No thanks. I've got enough pie at home to gain twenty pounds." He came back into her, holding two tied dishtowels full of all the ice in her house in ziploc bags. "Bud's wife made the pie?"

"She was grateful to me for telling her that the Grimm would protect her husband, not kill him."

Nick grinned. "I appreciate that."

Liliana hissed a breath in through her teeth as Nick placed the ice packs. The ice was very uncomfortable, but it would bring the swelling down on her ankle, and numb the pain in her arm. There were times when she wished she could use over-the-counter medicines like normal humans. "Can you do something else for me?"

"Sure, Lilly, whatever you need."

"Can you get the big bag sitting by the business door and put it in my bedroom closet? It doesn't belong where it is, but I don't want to lift it."

Nick went and got the duffel. He hefted it curiously as he brought it back in. "What's in here?"

"A whole lot of money."

Nick hesitated for a moment, then walked into her bedroom and set the duffel bag in her closet.

Liliana watched him.

Nick gingerly picked up the blood-soaked clothes that she had discarded on the floor earlier. She hadn't had the energy to take them to the trash, and they were clearly beyond any laundering.

Nick came back into the room, looking concerned. "Lilly, why do you have a bag full of money?"

"The wife of the lowan that I killed gave it to me. She didn't want it."

Nick ran his hand through his hair and scratched the back of his neck. "Um, Lilly, did you murder a man last night, and get paid by his wife?"

Lilly grinned, amused. "Are you going to arrest me, Nick?"

"I'm wondering if I should."

"As a police detective, you should, but as a Grimm, you should not. I did what you would have done if you had been there."

Nick got an "aha" kind of look on his face. "But I wasn't there, because you promised Phoebe Wurstner that I'd protect Bud."

Liliana smiled at him. "You were magnificent. I watched you fight the reapers. I wanted to be there when you fought them, but you didn't need any help."

Nick squeezed her uninjured hand. "I had an excellent teacher."

Liliana felt warm in spite of the ice on her arm and her ankle.

"What else can I do for you?"

"Could you get me some painkillers from Rosalee? I will heal in a week or two, but …"

"No problem. Anything else?"

"I will be fine, Nick. I am just really tired and would like to sleep."

"Okay, I'll let you rest." He leaned in and kissed her forehead.

Nick left and Liliana dozed.

Another knock on her shop door woke her up. It was Phoebe with enough casserole for her to eat for days.

Liliana ate the absolutely delicious and still warm chicken casserole, then she lay back down on her couch, not really sleepy, but not interested in doing anything. She didn't even want to look with her fourth eyes. She was afraid she might see something important and feel impelled to do something about it.

She wondered if it might actually be nice to have a television. She certainly had enough money to get one now.

Monroe knocked on her home door before she got properly settled. "Come in!" she shouted. The door was not locked and she did not want to get up again.

Monroe and Rosalee brought her medicine. Monroe brewed it for her, mixed with Chai tea to hide the bitter flavor.

She drank the medicine and got very relaxed and a little happy. She suspected that this was what her venom made men feel like. The pain faded to a dull, distant ache.

She had Monroe leave the door open a crack so that whoever came next could just come in.

Liliana had never in her life had so many people in her house in one day. She felt like she sort of had a party, just not all at once. She giggled to herself and noticed that she had lost some time. Her clocks said it was past eight in the evening, and her windows were dark. Rosalee's medicine was still going strong. She felt no pain and no inclination to move.

A deep voice said her name. "Liliana?"

"Yes?" She looked up and saw Sean Renard holding a gun and looking around her place.

She sighed. "I thought we were past the gun pointing thing."

"Your door was open. I thought something was wrong."

"Nothing is wrong. So many people have been in and out of my house today, I got tired of opening the door."

"Who has been here?" he asked. He closed the door behind himself and locked it.

"Nearly everyone I know."

"You look terrible."

Liliana giggled. "I don't think you're supposed to say that even if it's true. Isn't there a rule against it?"

"Undoubtedly." He put the gun away.

"Why are you here, Sean? Even spinnesehen don't heal that fast."

He chuckled at the reference. "I wanted to make sure you were okay, and see if you needed anything. Apparently, I was last in line."

"I have pie. And tea. And a big bag of money. And really good painkillers. I am glad you came, though."

"Is there anything else you need? Anything I can do?"

"You could kiss me again. I like it when you kiss me."

The prince smiled at her, a real, small amused smile, not his broad, false politician's smile. "Those must be some great painkillers."

"I really like your smile, too, when it's real."

The prince looked around her place, probably looking for a place to settle. He looked at the chair that Nick and Monroe liked to sit in, but didn't sit there.

He took his coat and suit jacket off, and loosened his tie. He bent down, picked Liliana up off her couch into his arms, turned around and sat down with her in his lap. He settled her comfortably against his chest, in the crook of his arm.

Liliana giggled again. "I like this, too." She snuggled into his broad chest. Her left arm was safe in her lap. Her right hand rested on his chest. She placed it over his heart where it seemed to belong.

"I'm glad to hear that." His hand stroked her hair back from her face, very gentle on the swollen bruises on one side of her face.

"Are you going to kiss me now?" She looked up at him with just her human eyes.

"Definitely."

She looked into him as he kissed her gently, careful not to hurt her.

He worried about her. He had been thinking about her all day, both how beautiful and tiny she was and how badly she had been hurt. He worried that he had left her here alone, that if she needed help, no one would know. He was a little angry with himself for not insisting that she go to a hospital. He was both relieved and disconcerted to find her so well taken care of.

His concern made her heart soar. Her dark prince definitely had a heart, and she had begun to win it.

"My friends have taken good care of me. You don't need to worry."

"You must have some very good friends."

"I do." Liliana thought about that. "I didn't have any friends at all until I met Nick. I also didn't have to fight really big lions and get half squashed, but I like my life better now."

"Was Nick here?" His body tensed a little, and his face and voice became very bland.

"Yes. He moved the bag of money for me, called my friends at the spice shop for medicine, put ice packs on me, and kissed me before he left."

"Nick kissed you? Does Nick kiss you a lot?" His voice was still very bland, but Liliana wasn't fooled.

She giggled. "You're jealous of Nick."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You told me you wouldn't look in my head unless we were kissing."

"I didn't need to look."

"You didn't answer my question." He didn't bother to hide his emotions from her. His jaw clenched, and his face was a storm cloud, waiting to burst with anger.

"Nick does not kiss me like you do." She knew the prince could be a very dangerous man, and didn't want him angry with Nick.

"What do you mean?"

Liliana leaned up and gave her prince a sisterly peck on the cheek. "Nick kisses me like that."

"Ah, I see." His body relaxed against her, and his face lost its hardness. He actually smiled just a little, pleased to know that he was the only one who kissed her like a lover.

Liliana smiled wide. "I think I like that you were jealous."

"Why would you like that?"

"You wouldn't be jealous if I wasn't important to you."

His face showed a moment of something like surprise. He pulled her closer with his arms around her shoulder and over her hip. "That's true."

"You like me because I always tell you the truth." Liliana's right hand wandered over the planes of Sean's chest that she could feel through his smooth button-down shirt. He must have come straight from work. Liliana loosened his tie until the short end of the tie came out of the knot. She tossed the useless piece of silk on the floor and started unbuttoning his buttons one handed.

"That's not the only reason I like you," he said, voice so soft it was almost a whisper. He kissed her forehead, but it didn't feel the least bit brotherly. His lips trailed to her cheek on the side that wasn't bruised, then her ear.

Liliana wondered if kissing that was not on the lips qualified as kissing that would let her look into him. "I would really like to know what other reasons you like me. Can I look?"

He chuckled low, tickling her ear. "You could just ask."

"I don't always understand what they mean when people answer in words. When I look inside, I understand."

He stopped kissing her and looked down at her face. "You've already seen inside my head."

"I have seen who you are." She had loosened enough buttons to slip her hand in his shirt and feel the heat of his skin over his pounding heart. "I have seen the soul of you." She ran her hand up his neck to his face and cupped his cheek. "But I only see what you think and feel in the moment when I look."

He swallowed. He pressed his face against her hand and closed his eyes for a moment. "What is inside my head isn't always pretty, and some of it is dangerous for you to know."

"I know a great many dangerous secrets, my dark prince, including some of yours. I have never betrayed your secrets, and I never will."

He opened his eyes, and they were filled with some intense emotion, some longing she couldn't identify.

"Let me in," she asked.

He nodded, minimally, and she saw fear flash in his eyes.

She opened her third eyes and looked. The fear was that she would see more deeply into him and not like what she found. But it was balanced by a longing, a hope that someone could know him, all the layers and secrets hidden in the dark corners of his soul, and still want him. No, not just someone. Her.

Liliana looked inside Sean Renard's mind and saw herself looking back, with exotic eyes like wise jewels, and fierce battle joy on her face as she danced a lion to death. She saw herself, head cocked sideways and eyes on the floor, thick wavy dark hair framing an elfin face as she asked him if he had sent reapers to kill the Grimm. She felt herself tremble and go soft in Sean's arms as he kissed her. She saw herself tell him that she desired all that he was and would fight for him.

He wanted to possess all that power and beauty, unselfconscious grace and honest desire. He wanted her so badly he could hardly think of anything else.

Liliana pulled her prince into her first kiss. It was the first time that she kissed him, not the other way around.

Liliana pulled him hard enough against her lips to hurt and didn't care. She kissed him like she would die if she couldn't kiss him.

He groaned into her mouth and kissed her back with the same desperate desire.

His hand moved up her bare thigh under her skirt.

Her hand ripped the rest of the buttons off his shirt and explored his chest.

He crushed her tight enough against his hard body to make her cry out involuntarily from the pain.

He froze, pulled away from the kiss, breath coming hard.

"It's all right," Liliana said. He had hurt her, but between the painkillers and the hormones, she was so drunk, she didn't care.

"No, it isn't." He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and let it out, regaining control of himself. "I'd better go."

"I really want to bite you," Liliana said, disappointed. She knew she wasn't thinking clearly with the drugs in her system, but she wasn't sure she had ever wanted anyone or anything so badly. Waiting until her body healed seemed like torture.

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Did you just say you want to bite me?"

"I want to share venom with you very much." She nibbled on the strong column of his throat and down to the collarbone that his open shirt revealed. He had so much muscle, she could bite him almost anywhere.

"That's not what I had in mind," he said, carefully. His body tensed against her. He probably would have pulled away, if he could have done it without dumping her injured body on the floor. As it was, he pulled her head away from his skin with a firm grip on the hair at the back of her neck.

Liliana giggled. "I know what you had in mind and I want that, too. But it would hurt right now. Can I just bite you?" Liliana ran her hand through the short dark hair on his temples, dusted with a few scattered gray hairs, the first sign that he was no longer young. If he would let her bite him, those gray hairs would soon fade away. If she had her way, his hair would stay dark forever.

"What would that do to me?" His voice and face were both blank, hiding what he felt.

She looked, since she had permission. He was afraid. He thought she wanted to eat him or poison him, or alter his mind with a potion like a hexenbiest's. "My venom would make you feel a little like I feel from the painkillers for a while, and then it would heal any old injuries you have and make you feel like you did when you were younger."

He relaxed a little. "Is that how men who have spinnesehen lovers live so long?"

Liliana nodded. "My father lived to be nearly six hundred years old."

"Will it affect my mind?"

She nodded again. "For a few minutes, yes. You would tell me the truth, no matter what I asked, and you would be very suggestible. I could tell you to do almost anything and you would."

"What were you planning on telling me to do?"

Liliana smiled. "Probably to kiss me again. I don't really want to stop."

His lips twisted in amusement. "I think you need to rest."

Liliana sighed. "I guess you're right. I just don't want to. I want to bite you and drag you into my bed."

Sean stood, and lifted her with him. "I'm not sure I'll ever let you do that."

"You don't want me to tell you what to do?"

"I don't want anyone to tell me what to do."

Liliana smiled to herself as he placed her gently into her bed and tucked her in. She could get used to that. "You let me look inside your head."

"That's not the same as letting you mess with it."

"No, but not long ago, you threatened to shoot me if I did that."

He quirked his lips as he picked up her bloody clothes from the night before to put them in the trash. "You have me doing a lot of things I never thought I would."

Liliana smiled and fell asleep.


	8. Royal Date

Royal Date

The next day, Liliana got a delivery. She opened the box and found a mobile phone inside, a very nice smart phone. There was no note or anything to show who had sent it. She tried tracing the phone backward in time with her fourth eyes, but that was much more difficult to do with objects than with people, and all she saw was it going back to hands that built it. She turned the phone on, plugged it in to let it charge, but wasn't really sure what she was going to do with it after that.

Liliana didn't even have a last name. She had no credit cards or bank account and paid all of her bills in cash. She bought most of what she owned at second-hand stores. The house she lived in had been willed to her by an old friend thirty years ago, and was fully paid for. She had a twenty-year-old land phone that she mailed cash for every month, just like her electricity, gas, and such.

She had never even considered getting a cell phone. Cell phone companies wanted all sorts of information that she didn't have. And until someone handed her a huge bag of money, she couldn't afford the exorbitant rates smart phone data plans demanded in any case.

The phone was sort of pretty, though. And someone had sent it to her as a gift.

It startled her when the thing rang. She had to look at it for a few seconds to figure out how to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Liliana. You got the package I sent."

Liliana smiled. It was her prince. "Yes, I did." Liliana opened her fourth eyes so she could see him while they talked.

"Don't worry about the data plan. It's paid through the next year." He was in his office at work, leaned back in his chair playing idly with a pen. He wore a suit that was perfectly pressed and fitted, with a pale blue shirt and a dark blue, subtly patterned tie.

"The phone is a very nice gift. Thank you."

"I have ulterior motives."

"You always do."

He chuckled. "I wanted to be able to check on you without you having to get up and go to the phone."

"You could check on me in person like you did last night. I enjoyed that."

"So did I. But I think we should wait until you're healed before we see each other again."

Liliana thought that was probably a wise decision, but wasn't too happy about it anyway. "I will be functional in about a week."

"A week? Isn't your arm broken?"

"In two places, yes. My ankle is also badly sprained and I have deep bruises over about half of my body."

"And that will be fully healed in a week?"

"My left arm will be weak for a while longer. I told you that spinnesehen heal quickly."

"That's very impressive."

"I am glad I could impress you."

"You always do."

Liliana grinned, and felt warm to her toes.

"I'd like to take you out, then." He looked at the calendar on his computer. "A week from this Friday night. I'll pick you up at seven."

"Like a date? Like dinner at a fancy restaurant and all that?"

"That is generally the idea, yes."

Liliana thought about it. The request seemed odd to her, based on her previous experiences with men. "Why do you want to take me out on a date? I already want to have sex with you."

He laughed. "Maybe I want more from you than just sex."

Liliana found her heart fluttering with nerves. Her prince had been impressed by her fighting, and her honesty, two things she was very good at. She was not so good at socializing. She was afraid she would disappoint him. "Sean, I am not very good with crowds and such."

"You'll be fine. I'll take care of you."

"Okay." Liliana hung up and fiddled with the scarves that made up her skirt. A date. Liliana had never in her life had a date that didn't end in disaster. She knew what she was good at and what she was not good at, and dating was something she was truly abysmal at.

Fortunately, she now had friends. She would make sure that this date succeeded. If she could defeat a lowan champion, she could manage a simple date. Right?

She told herself that for a week. Then, Friday came, and she knew what she had to do.

She put a bunch of the money Marilyn had given her and the cell phone that Sean gave her in the teal velvet bag that matched her cloak and caught a cab to the Wurstner's house.

Phoebe answered the door. "Madame Anna? What are you doing here?"

"You should call me Lilly," she said.

"I thought your name was Anna."

"My name is Liliana. My customers call me Anna. My friends call me Lilly. You should call me Lilly."

Phoebe smiled brightly. "Thank you, Ma .. um … Lilly."

"I need help."

"Anything."

"I need to be pretty."

"But you're already pretty."

"I have a date tonight."

"Oh, Anna, I mean Lilly! You have a boyfriend?" She clapped her hands together, and pulled Lilly into her house by her hand. "That's wonderful. Tell me everything. What's he like?"

"He's very tall, very handsome, and very dangerous, and he makes my knees wobbly when he kisses me."

"That sounds wonderful, all except the dangerous part."

"I like dangerous men. It's a species trait. My sister married a mauvais dente assassin. My father was a lowan prince. My grandfather was a blutbad. One of my mother's sisters married Ghengis Khan."

"Well, I'll be happy to help you out, but I don't think I want to meet your boyfriend."

"That's fine. I need all the help I can get, and I wouldn't want him to kill you because you found out something he didn't want known."

Phoebe had one of her neighbors watch her kids for the afternoon, and she and Liliana spent the whole day getting ready for her date.

Liliana bought a new dress, shoes, and jewelry, got her hair and nails done, got a facial and her makeup done and bought all the makeup, so she could do it herself when she wanted to. Phoebe had the woman who did her makeup show her how to do it in a less dramatic style for every day. Liliana didn't know there were different ways to do makeup based on the occasion until Phoebe told her. She hadn't bothered much with makeup and such before, except for stage makeup, but she suddenly felt a powerful need to learn.

She was extremely glad she had a friend like Phoebe who knew all about date related stuff to help her. Phoebe and Bud had a very happy marriage. Liliana wanted what they had. She spent a fair amount of the day while various strangers poked, prodded and prissied her getting bombarded with dating advice from Phoebe. It was a lot to try to absorb and a lot of it made no sense.

When Phoebe dropped her at home at six, Liliana sat on her couch, afraid to move for fear she would mess up something that she had paid ridiculous amounts of money for someone to prettify. She opened her fourth eyes. Afraid to look into the future at her date for fear she would see disaster, she decided to watch her prince instead, to see what he had done that day.

Liliana found that she had missed quite a bit. Nick and Hank were chasing a murderer that people thought was the legendary bigfoot, but was in fact a wilderman friend of Monroe's named Larry. She saw all of the events that led up to them finding Larry's body in the forest. She watched Sean talk to a bunch of news people. "We are confident that we have found our man and there is no further danger to the public."

That was not entirely accurate, although it wasn't Sean's fault. He had no way to know that there was more than one. She should tell him.

Nick and Hank might be able to stop the next killings in time.

The insistent knock on her door finally brought her back to herself. She looked at her clocks. It was 7: 13. Either Sean was very late, or he had been knocking on her door for a while.

She looked out and saw Sean about to knock her door down.

Liliana quickly opened the door. "I am sorry. I was lost in time."

He stopped and stared. "I thought something had happened to you."

His eyes raked over her from the toes of her new black satin ballet slippers with the criss-crossing ribbons tied around her ankles, up her slender legs clad in sheer hose, rather than her usual tights. The hem of her new dress was so short it barely covered the lacy underwear that matched it. The dipping neckline barely covered the lacy push-up bra that matched the underwear and enhanced her modest décolletage. Her hair, as black as the dress, was pinned up in softly draped ringlets with sparkling emerald and diamond hair pins that matched the dangly earrings and delicate choker necklace she wore.

Liliana thought that having her hair up made her neck look like a giraffe's. Her face with her gigantic cheekbones was all exposed, too. And the makeup the woman had used made her eyes look huge. Sean probably thought she looked like a cartoon dressed for a funeral. She did.

Phoebe had insisted that a "little black dress" was just the thing for a fancy date, but Liliana much preferred bright colors. The emerald necklace and hair pins were the only part of the outfit that Liliana genuinely liked. The shoes were nice, too. Phoebe had insisted that Liliana get high heels, but she had drawn the line there. Liliana couldn't fight or run in high heels.

Sean just stood there staring at her for several seconds. His face looked full of some dark emotion. She thought maybe he was angry. "I'm sorry," Liliana said.

"For what?"

"For … not really knowing how to dress for a date."

"Liliana, look in my head right now."

"You never told me to do that before."

"Just do it."

She opened her third eyes and looked at the image of herself burning in Sean Renard's mind like a torch flame. One powerful thought in his mind was that she wanted to have sex with him, and her bed was only a few feet away. Only three things kept him from sweeping her up and carrying her straight back into her bedroom. One was his iron self-control, which allowed him to let the other two rule his actions. Another was the fact that he had promised both her and himself that they would have at least one proper date, so he would know more about her than that she turned him on like a teenager, and she could kill a lowan champion.

Neither of those would have been enough to stop him without the third reason. He didn't want to risk the short-term effects of her venom. The idea of losing control of his mind and his actions, even for a few minutes, disturbed him deeply. Even so, his burning desire for her made him wonder, maybe it wouldn't be that bad to lose control with her.

Liliana smiled. "I did okay, then."

"You look breathtaking." He extended his arm like a perfect gentleman, but she had seen the fire behind his green eyes and wasn't fooled.

He had given her a compliment. She was supposed to return the favor. He wore a suit, a very dressy suit with gold cufflinks and perfectly creased seams. "You always look elegant. You look even more elegant than usual."

That seemed acceptable. So far, so good.

They didn't speak as they drove to the restaurant. Liliana checked on the progress of the investigation into the murders by the wilderman.

Sean looked over at her at some point and smiled, a small, pleased smile.

Liliana tilted her head and asked, "What did I do that pleased you?"

"Nothing. I just realized another thing I like about you."

"What is that?"

"When you have nothing to say, you don't say anything. You don't feel the need to fill silence with meaningless words."

Liliana thought about the exhausting day she had spent with Phoebe talking to her every moment. She liked Phoebe, but she much preferred the nice beaver woman in smaller doses. "People who do that can be tiring. When do they ever have time to think?"

He chuckled. "Exactly."

The restaurant Sean took her to was crowded in the front with people waiting for a table.

Liliana made a small involuntary sound of distress and tried to hide behind Sean's much taller body.

He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to his side instead.

Liliana closed her eyes, and let him guide her. She wrapped her arms around herself, but Phoebe told her repeatedly that playing with her clothes was unladylike. She had to not do it during her date or she would embarrass Sean.

She opened one human eye as he stopped.

He spoke to a tall, elegant woman who wore a black dress a lot like Liliana's, except the woman was tall enough in her high heels to almost look the prince in the eyes. The top of Liliana's head barely reached his shoulder. She looked natural and elegant in the dress. Liliana had to remind herself that Sean had his arm around her, not the other lady.

"Reservation for two. Renard."

"Yes, of course, Captain. We have your table ready."

He guided her out of the crowd of people still waiting and through the softly lit restaurant to a table next to a window with a magnificent view. The table was in a little alcove that isolated it from the rest of the restaurant. No one would be able to see or hear them once they sat down. It would be as if they had dinner alone.

He had said that he would take care of her.

Liliana smiled up at him.

He managed to look smug, without hardly changing his expression.

"You knew I had trouble with crowds."

"You did mention it, and I saw your difficulty at the police station and at the lowan king's succession."

"Thank you." It was incredibly considerate of him, and it probably cost a fortune to reserve this specific table in such a popular restaurant.

She let him order food for her. The menu was all in French, which was familiar, but the food was still very unfamiliar. She had eaten simply when she was in Europe. Circus people didn't have money to spend on fancy food.

Sean ordered for them both in French.

The waiter answered in French, asking if they would like any appetizers, and what sort of wine they would like.

Liliana declined the wine in French, but requested the toast with tapenade appetizer.

If the other food was too strange or she didn't like it, at least she could eat the bread and olive paste.

"Est-ce que tu parles Français?" Sean asked her, surprised.

"Oui. Ma mère m'a appris à parler Français."

"How many languages do you speak?"

Liliana shrugged. "Eight fluently. I know some Russian and Norwegian and a few others, too, but mostly just the curse words and simple things like hello and 'Where is the train station?' I also speak some Rom. When I was young, I had good friends who were gypsies." Friends long gone.

"Which eight do you speak fluently?"

"As I said, my mother taught me to speak French. She also taught me German and English. I learned Greek, Latin, and Arabic from my father, and my second mother taught me Spanish and Portuguese as well as a Peruvian Indian dialect that I have pretty much completely forgotten."

"You continue to surprise me. Have you travelled a great deal?"

"I have hardly left the United States for the last seventy years. I have been in Portland for over three decades."

"I forget how old you are. You barely look twenty. Before that?"

"The circus I grew up in toured Europe for many years, but moved to the US when World War II made Europe unsafe. My parents and many of my friends were killed by that jackal, Hitler. My second mother smuggled me out of Europe hidden in a cage with lions. My people always mate outside our species, which made us abominations to Hitler's verrat." Liliana fiddled with the tablecloth under the table. She would not ever forget that time of her life, but she hadn't thought about it in many years. The constant presence of fear and grief had faded with time.

Sean reached across the table and held his hand out to her. She took it. His fingers held hers and rubbed gently. She watched the movement. It was soothing, like her scarves, but warmer. Better.

"Considering how you fought the lowan champion, I'm not surprised that you had a circus background. You almost looked like you were performing." he said, shifting the subject to less painful ground.

Liliana took a breath, let the old sadness go, and smiled up at him. He had enjoyed watching her fight, though he had been afraid she would die. "I wish you had seen me fight Nick. The lowan was slow and blunt. He lacked grace and I was limited to the confines of the cage. My combat with the Grimm was like being on the trapeze again."

"You fought Nick?"

"That is how we met. He thought I was a murderer and tried to kill me."

His eyebrows went up and his jaw clenched. "I didn't know about that."

She shrugged. "It was before we met, before I even knew there was a member of the seven houses in Portland."

"Why didn't Nick kill you?"

"I defeated him."

"Why didn't you kill him, then?"

"I looked into him, and didn't want to kill him. He has a compassionate soul, and is filled up with love for his Juliet."

"How did you convince him you weren't a murderer?"

"I bit him."

Sean's face went through a series of subtle expressions, from surprise to anger, to curiosity and back to anger. Anger seemed to be the one emotion he was comfortable expressing. "You bit him." His voice showed no emotion at all.

Liliana had begun to learn her prince's expressions. When his voice went all bland, as if the conversation meant nothing, he was feeling something intense, and carefully hiding it. "The killer Nick sought was a spider wesen that killed her victims by biting them. I bit him to prove that my bite was not deadly, so I was not the killer."

"And he let you?"

Liliana felt her cheeks heat with shame. "He did not. I …" Liliana swallowed a sip of water, took a deep breath, and admitted what she had done. "I forced him." She ran the table cloth between her fingers under the table where she hoped Sean wouldn't notice. The linen fabric was rough, not soothing, but the movement had become habitual and was soothing in its familiarity. She looked down at the fabric, watching the movement.

"That bothers you."

"I felt justified at the time, and Nick has forgiven me, but it was not an act I am proud of."

He seemed to consider for a moment. "I'm glad."

"You're glad that I bit Nick?"

"I'm glad that you're ashamed of it, even though you were under extreme circumstances."

Oh. Liliana realized that Sean had been afraid she would bite him if they got close again, whether he wanted her to or not. "I give you my word that I will not bite you unless you give me permission."

His lips quirked, not amusement, irony. "I already know that you keep your word, scrupulously. If you had said that earlier, we might not have left your house."

Liliana smiled as she remembered what he was thinking when he picked her up. "I really want to bite you, though. I think it's good to talk. If I can earn your trust, you might let me."

He set down the glass of wine he had been sipping. "Liliana, I don't think there's enough talk in the world to convince me." Sean Renard was not a man who liked giving up control, even for a few minutes.

"I have two years. I am patient."

"What happens in two years?"

"Paruungzeit. In two years, I will be one hundred, an adult, and my body will change. If I have not chosen a mate, my body will impel me to mate with the nearest strong, fierce male in the vicinity to produce a child. I would much prefer to choose. And I think you are the one I would choose."

Sean chuckled and sat back. "You know, it's generally considered bad form to discuss children on the first date."

Liliana cocked her head sideways. She had broken a social dating rule. Somewhere in all the endless stream of words that Phoebe had spewed at her all day, she mentioned that one, something about it scaring men away. She considered Sean. He didn't look scared. "You are not easily frightened."

"No, I'm not. Two years. Hm?" Liliana desperately wished either that she had permission to look to see what he was thinking and feeling, or that he was more overtly expressive. Her prince was all subtlety and hidden layered motives. He was far more used to hiding his emotions than to expressing them.

"Yes. You have two years to decide, as do I. If you are still with me in two years, then I will choose you to be the father of my daughter."

"Can't you just look into the future and see if I am?"

"It's difficult to look into my own future. My actions alter it constantly. Plus, your future is hazy. Several paths of probability lead to your death within the next week. Some of those lead to my death as well. I have a hard time seeing more than flickers of possibility past that point."

"I'd nearly forgotten why we met in the first place. I didn't take your warning seriously at first." He sipped wine thoughtfully. "So, either I'll die in the next week, or you'll save me, and spend the next two years trying to convince me to let you bite me."

"I hope it will not take that long. I want to bite you a lot."

His lips quirked. "I gather this is something sexual to you?"

Liliana thought about it. "It is more intimate than a kiss, but not exactly like sex."

"How is it different?"

"It is an expression of emotional attachment, just as sex can be. Sharing venom is how a spinnesehen binds her mate to her. Once we share venom, you and I will be linked. When we have shared venom for a long time, you will live as long as I do. Our lives will be bound to one another."

"You bit Nick. Has it affected him?"

Liliana nodded, looking down. "My life and his have been intertwined ever since. The bond is not strong, but it is there. Nick is mine, to a certain degree. If we do not share venom again, the effect will wear off eventually."

He leaned forward and smiled that small pleased smile. "You want to claim me as yours."

"I have seen inside you. You want to claim me as yours as well. You want to use sex to do it. I want to use venom. You are human, mostly. I am spinnesehen. We want the same thing. We just want to go about it differently."

"So, you don't want to have sex with me?" His eyes sparkled with amusement. He was teasing her.

"I want sex with you so much I can barely think of anything else." She grinned back at him. "But I also very much want to bite you."

"I'll consider it."

"I'll be patient."

The meal was delicious, although very rich. Liliana only ate about half of her food. She didn't want to be overly full, considering the obvious conclusion to the evening.

"I had intended to take you dancing," Sean said as he escorted her to his car.

"I would really rather go to your home and have sex. You can dance with me another time."

He chuckled as he got in the car. "You have no idea how much I appreciate your honesty right now."

He drove fast enough to risk getting a ticket.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you something important. You were wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

"We are confident that we have our man and there is no further danger to the public," she quoted.

"He wasn't the bigfoot killer?"

"No, you were right about that part. But there is more danger. He is not the only one. There was a drug pump in the dead man's hand. It is important. There will be more deaths. Larry was not the only wesen using that drug."

"Is there anything I can do about it tonight?"

Liliana closed her human eyes and opened her fourth eyes. She followed several paths of possibility, trying to find one where Nick, Hank or Sean could prevent the deaths that would occur that night. She found none. "No, you cannot stop what will happen tonight. But make sure the tests and trace on the drug pump gets expedited. It might save a few other lives."

"I'll take care of it first thing tomorrow."

Liliana nodded. "Thank you."

"That's what you meant, isn't it?"

Liliana looked at him, head cocked sideways, not sure what he was talking about.

"When you said you would give me useful advice, and I could choose to follow it or not."

"Yes. That is exactly what I meant."

"You give Nick advice like this all the time?"

"Nick is a very good detective. He does not need me to solve murders. I only give him advice occasionally, usually when he faces immediate danger to himself or those he cares about."

"Do you see any danger like that now?"

"Yes, his Juliet is in terrible danger. Adelind will hurt her, possibly kill her, but I cannot find a way to save her." Liliana closed her eyes and looked down at her hands, fiddling with the edge of her skirt, even though she knew she shouldn't. "Her danger is partially my fault and partially yours. I told Nick how to defeat her, and you spurned her. Somehow, Juliet's sickness will be revenge against both you and Nick."

Sean's face hardened. "Adelind couldn't do anything to Juliet if she were dead."

"Killing Adelind will only make matters worse. I have been searching for a solution, but …" she shrugged. "If Juliet dies, it will shatter Nick. I do not think a Grimm compromised by such deep grief and facing the dangers he faces will survive. I must find a way to save her, or Nick will lose his Juliet and we will lose our Grimm."

Sean chuckled. "Our Grimm?"

"I know you think of Nick as yours, just as I do. You really should tell him who you are. It would make both your lives much less complicated."

"I'll tell him, eventually."

Liliana sighed. "Why am I attracted to stubborn men?"


	9. To Save a Prince

To Save a Prince

Liliana lay awake, snuggled in the arms of her prince. His long body spooned around her made her feel very small and oddly, very safe. His warm breathing against the top of her head was steady and deep with sleep.

The trouble was, it wasn't her life that was endangered, it was his. In a matter of days, a jackal would come for him. Talking about her parents at dinner had brought up old feelings that she had all but forgotten. The schakale, Adolf Hitler had gotten the coins of Zakynthos, and used them to all but destroy the spinnesehen race, along with many others. They had murdered her mother and father.

Now, a schakale came for Sean, her beautiful dark prince whose heart beat faster when she touched him. The jackal would kill her prince because for a day, Sean had touched those coins. Liliana wished those coins had never been forged. A great deal of evil in the world would not have happened.

She searched the near future for what she could possibly have missed. She saw that the probability was near certain that she would have to fight for her prince. The probability that she would win was the same as before, about even, much as it had been with the lowan champion. This jackal was an excellent fighter, and while she had convinced Sean that her injuries were fully healed, her left arm would be weak and would cause her pain for some time to come. The break had been bad.

She kept seeing herself fight for her prince, and live or die, she saw her prince bloody on the floor not long after. Nick put two fingers to his throat to check for his pulse and said, "He's dead."

And her prince was no more.

She could no longer see a future where he lived.

Somewhere along the line, she had changed the possibilities. It must have happened today. There had been flickering images of him in the future before; unlikely, but there. She didn't know what, but she had done something wrong. She had made a mistake, and Sean would pay the price.

She blinked tears and sniffled. There had to be something that she had missed. She had to find it.

"Hey," he mumbled softly. "What's wrong? Did you see something?"

"It is something I do not see that worries me." Liliana held his big hand close against her chest, rubbing his fingers for comfort. His other arm was pillowed under her head.

"What don't you see?"

"You. I see myself fighting for you, and sometimes I win and survive, but I do not see you after that."

"I don't like the idea of you fighting for me if you're not sure you can win," he said. He always seemed to ignore the danger she predicted to himself. It wasn't as if he didn't care, or as if he didn't believe her. It was as if he was so used to his life being in danger that it seemed unimportant to him.

"I decided to fight for you when you had only kissed me once."

"And now?"

"A dozen angry siegbarstes could not stop me from fighting for you."

He chuckled and hugged her tighter against his strong body. "Be careful, then."

They both were silent for a time, but his breathing didn't steady and slow. He was awake now as well.

"What can you tell me about it?" he asked after a while. Maybe he was not as unconcerned about his fate as he seemed.

"A jackal will come, a schakale. He is Japanese but he wears a Norse tattoo on his face. He will come here looking for the coins of Zakynthos. You were known to have had them for a time. He will torture you for information, trying to find them, then he will kill you."

"I don't know where the coins are," he said, voice very bland in the way it was when he sought to hide his emotions.

"Those coins are responsible for my mother and father's deaths. Nick's parents died because of them as well. If you had kept them, they would have made you a monster. Now, they will steal you from me."

He stroked her hair and kissed her shoulder. "Then it's a good thing that they're gone."

Liliana kept silent. She knew that Nick had the coins. She had seen him take them from the eagle and hide them in the trailer. Nick had not been affected by them because he was a Grimm, but they possessed a poison that damaged the mind. Royals were not just susceptible to the coins, they were the most vulnerable to their pull. Sean would not be able to free himself from desire for them once he had held them in his hand. If her prince knew where those coins were, even now, he would stop at nothing to get them.

After a while, the prince slept.

Liliana did not sleep the whole night. She searched and searched and searched. She could not find a reason why her prince would die now, when before, there had been every chance for her to save him. What had changed? What had she done wrong? More importantly, what could she do to fix it before it was too late?

She spent the rest of the week in a frazzle, searching and searching, but nothing changed.

She met Monroe and Nick at a coffee shop each morning, to see if they had learned anything new, and keep an eye on them. They worried about Hank. He became increasingly disturbed by the things he had seen. Liliana knew that he wasn't sleeping, due to his nightmares. She could relate.

She had seen another danger, a dark woman, who would threaten Nick's heart, not his body. The woman would not kill Nick, but he might kill her, and he would regret it. She would make him weep, no matter what, but he would grieve deeply if he killed her.

In any other situation, Liliana would have spent some time exploring the woman's past and future to see who she was, and why she would so deeply affect her favorite Grimm. But, for now, she had other things on her mind.

Liliana had not been sleeping much. She went to the coffee house. Liliana waited for Nick and Monroe, sipping a chai tea latte, and wishing her head would stop pounding.

"Hey, Lilly. How ya doing?" Monroe said.

"I have not slept in two days. My left arm aches and two people I care about, maybe three, will get murdered in the next few days. I can't figure out how to save them."

"Boy, I should never ask you anything until I've had coffee."

Nick came in a few moments later. "Lilly? You don't look good. Is everything okay?"

Lilly burst into tears. "No, everything is not okay."

Nick put an arm around her.

Lilly buried her face in his chest and got his shirt wet while he patted her back.

When she got control of herself, she warned Nick not to kill the woman in black. She didn't know who the woman was, but she knew he would be heartbroken if he killed her. The woman seemed to be hunting the same killer that they were hunting.

The day came when her prince would die and Juliet would be poisoned and Liliana had found no way to save either of them.

She hadn't slept in two days, searching all night and all day the various paths of probability, seeking some option, any option that would save Sean or Juliet. She found nothing, but she couldn't stop searching. She stayed on her couch, staring at the blank wall in front of her with her exhausted fourth eyes showing her over and over, images of Sean lying bloody on his floor, and Juliet lying in a hospital with eyes drowning in black.

She woke to bright sunshine slanting through her windows that faced west. Afternoon sunshine. She looked at her clocks. It was 4:23. She had slept away most of the crucial day.

Liliana scrambled to get dressed. She called a cab with the cell phone that Sean gave her.

Juliet had more time than Sean did. She couldn't prevent Nick's beloved from being poisoned, but assuming Liliana survived the fight with Kumura, she would have time later to try to save Juliet.

Sean was the first priority. She had to get into his building and wait for his killer to come.

The cab hit downtown right in the middle of five o'clock traffic. Liliana could have gotten out and walked faster. As the cab's dash clock passed six o'clock, Liliana gave up, got out of the cab and walked.

She saw the problem. The bridge was up. She climbed the superstructure, attached a line, ignoring the people below pointing at her, and swung across the gap. She released the line, tucked, flipped and stretched to catch the metal structure of the bridge on the other side. No problem.

She broke into a run when she hit asphalt again. She had a couple miles to travel yet.

Liliana cut between back alleys to get there faster.

Four young men in sloppy clothes approached her, asking for the time.

She looked at them with her third eyes. They intended to rob and rape her.

Liliana did not have time for this. She tried to run past the boys, but they blocked her path. She threw one boy into the other causing them both to stumble into a group of garbage cans, punched another boy's front teeth out, and kicked the last one solidly in the groin.

Kids today. They always wanted to fight, but never bothered to learn how to do it well.

Liliana paused around the corner from the boys to check on Sean. He had left work a little early and was just now arriving at his building.

Pain lanced into her left leg. Liliana looked down and found a small knife sticking out of her calf muscle, buried to the hilt.

She looked back, woged and snarled, showing fangs to the boy who had thrown it. Apparently, one of the street kids' egos couldn't stand being so easily beaten by a girl. His aim was terrible or she might have had that knife between her shoulder blades.

The boy looked at her, swallowed, turned around and ran.

She still had six blocks to go. She had to keep moving, knife or no knife.

Sean would get inside his condo unit before she arrived.

She limped a few steps at a fast walk.

Liliana kept her fourth eyes open to watch Sean, and watched her path with her human eyes at the same time. It split her mind in two. She started running as Sean entered his apartment and saw it trashed, ignoring the spikes of agony from her leg every time she put weight on it.

The killer was already there.

Sean found a body in his kitchen. He knelt beside the dead woman, and showed obvious signs of grief.

Liliana hadn't known that he had a housekeeper. In all her searching, she had spent little time watching Sean at home.

The killer struck her prince from behind while he was distracted.

Liliana flinched as if the blow had hit her, and closed her fourth eyes for a time. She knew the killer would take the time to tie him to a chair before he would hurt him again. She had to get to her prince before then.

She made it to Sean's building, finally. She looked up at the balcony on the eighth floor that she knew was his.

She opened her fourth eyes again and looked at the security guy at the front desk. She followed his path into the future. At no point in the next fifteen minutes did he become distracted enough for her to slip past him unnoticed.

She looked up the side of the building, made largely of glass and smooth metal. She had to find a way up there. She could climb from balcony to balcony. Maybe.

Just as she started forward, she felt a blade touch her back.

She blinked, surprised that someone had snuck up on her. Liliana had been very focused on her goal, but even so, her attacker must have been very stealthy.

"Come with me, or I'll sever your spine before you can move," a feminine voice whispered in her ear.

Liliana looked up at the balcony where her unconscious prince was being tied to a chair by a killer.

"Now!" The blade dug into her back hard enough to draw blood.

Liliana opened her second eyes so she could see behind, and know who it was that threatened her. Her attacker was a woman past fifty with a scar on her cheek and curly black hair dressed all in black. She was also a Grimm. It was the woman that she had seen coming, and warned Nick not to kill.

Liliana let the woman guide her into a narrow alley, and push her face up against a brick wall, the knife still touching her spine. Her old fear of Grimms came back to haunt her. She shivered, though she wasn't cold. "What do you want?" she asked the Grimm, and was embarrassed by the tremble in her voice.

"You're involved in this. I saw you in the pictures. What do you know about the coins?"

Anger overcame her fear for a moment. "I know that those coins have already cost the lives of my parents and many of my friends, and if you do not let me go very quickly, they will cost me another life dear to me."

The knife against her back eased a little. "Who?"

"Captain Sean Renard will die in the next ten minutes, murdered by Kimura, the man you hunt, if you do not let me save him."

"How do you know all that?" The woman pulled the blade away from Liliana's back and allowed her to turn around.

"It doesn't matter how I know. Just accept that it is the truth and let me go. I have to go now!"

"Why should I believe you?"

Liliana did not have time to think of a good argument to convince this Grimm that she was not an enemy. Training Nick had taught her something important. Grimms were formidable, but they were not invincible.

Liliana did a block and catch on the wrist the Grimm held her knife in, flicked her left arm blade out in the same movement and put it against the Grimm's throat before she could react. "I do not have time to explain, but I am not your enemy. We are allies in this."

The Grimm stared back at her, dark eyes defiant, even with the blade at her throat. "You have a funny way of showing it."

She shoved the Grimm away from her, popped her blade back into her arm and ran away. That should show the Grimm that she meant her no harm.

She looked up at the building, and realized that there was a fire escape on the back of the building. She would not have seen it if the Grimm hadn't dragged her into the alley.

"You better make time." The Grimm chased after her.

Sean was starting to regain consciousness. The killer would hurt him again soon. She had to run faster or she would be too late. The knife in her leg screamed at her every step. She did her best to ignore it and ran faster.

Liliana couldn't process more than two sets of visual information at once unless all of her eyes looked at the same thing. She didn't want to close her fourth eyes. They watched over her prince. She closed her human eyes, and opened her second eyes to keep an eye on the Grimm that chased her as she ran toward the fire escape as fast as she could with a knife embedded in her calf.

Her second eyes could see all around her, but they saw in different spectrums, making the cityscape look alien and unfamiliar. It was one of her nightmares. She was wounded, terrified, and being chased by a Grimm through unfamiliar streets. But this nightmare was real.

The Grimm paused as Liliana leapt for the ladder, trying to push off mainly on her right leg. She barely made the jump. She scrambled up to the first level of the fire escape.

The Grimm cocked a crossbow, aimed at her, and fired.

Liliana ducked the bolt that she knew was coming, and ran up the zig zag stairs and landings of the twelve story building.

The Grimm chased her, feet light and quick. She started out two stories behind, but rapidly closed the distance.

Liliana reached the ladder to the roof with the Grimm on her heels. Her foot slipped. Blood had run down her leg and slicked the bottom of her ballet shoe.

The Grimm grabbed her ankle.

Liliana kicked her in the face. It sent a shock of agony up her leg, but she ignored it.

The Grimm stumbled back against the railing of the last landing.

Liliana made it to the flat roof and sprinted across it, limping as little as she could manage.

She leaned over the railing on the other side of the building, looking for the right balcony.

The Grimm caught up to her while she found the right spot, crossbow reloaded and aimed at Liliana.

Liliana turned around to face her. If the Grimm shot her, she would climb down the building with a bolt in her flesh. She would get to Sean even if ten Grimms tried to stop her. "I will not fight you. Nick would grieve if I killed you, and I don't have time, anyway." She ripped a scarf off her skirt, ignoring the Grimm. She tied a pressure bandage around the knife to stop the bleeding and hold the blade steady, and stripped off her blood-soaked shoe. She couldn't remove the knife without risking losing too much blood to continue to function.

"What do you know about Nick?" The Grimm's voice was hard with hostility.

"He is a Grimm like you. And he is my friend." Liliana flinched as she saw Kimura punch her prince in the face with her fourth eyes. "I have to save Sean." She turned her back on the Grimm, attached her line to the safety wall and measured out what she hoped was the right length. "Let me save him, and I give you my word that I will answer your questions later."

"He means a lot to you."

Liliana nodded.

The Grimm lowered her crossbow.

Liliana leapt off the building.

She swung down, holding her line in her right hand. If she measured right, she would swing right onto Sean's balcony. But, of course, nothing had gone right that day.

She came up short, slammed against the railing of the balcony above Sean's, jarring the knife still sticking out of her leg. The pain was so intense, it made her stomach heave and her eyes darken. She lost her grip on her line.

She grabbed frantically and caught the railing of the balcony above Sean's with her weak left arm. More pain made her dizzy. She got her right arm up, attached a line to the railing, measured out a few more feet of silk, and dropped again.

She swung in to Sean's balcony as she intended this time, and released her line.

She landed as silently as she could, but she knew she made a sound. Her leg with the knife in it wasn't entirely obeying her.

She looked through the curtains with her fourth eyes. The killer hadn't heard the sound because Sean spat defiance at him as the killer threatened him with a huge kitchen knife.

Her prince was magnificent.

As Liliana carefully slid open the unlocked glass door, the killer grabbed Sean's head and placed the knife to his throat, ready to end her prince's life.

"Step away from him, jackal." Liliana flicked out her arm blades, and dropped into a fighting stance, with most of her weight on her right leg.

Kimura released the prince and turned to face Liliana, placing Sean between them.

"I thought maybe you decided not to come after all," Sean said.

"Sorry I took so long. Traffic was awful and I had a terrible day."

Sean chuckled and spat blood. "My day hasn't been the best either."

Liliana edged closer to Sean as they talked.

"Stay back and drop your weapons, or I'll kill him." Kimura pointed his blade at Sean's face.

"I am not stupid, jackal. If I stay back and put away my weapons, you will kill him, anyway." Liliana continued moving forward. "He does not have what you seek. If you let him be, I will let you leave this room alive."

Kimura drew back the knife to stab Sean. "I'm not bluffing, I will kill him."

Liliana leapt forward and deflected the big kitchen knife with her arm blade. They tinged directly in front of Sean's nose. Liliana slashed at Kimura to drive him back. "I know you're not bluffing. That is why I will not let you anywhere near him again."

Kimura dodged back and flipped the kitchen knife into a reversed fighting grip. "Are you after the coins, too?"

"I wish those coins were melted to slag and the slag burned to vapor. I just want to protect the man I love." Liliana kept moving forward until her body completely blocked Kimura's access to her prince. "Leave. I give you my word that I will not come after you, as much as I might want to."

She had determined during her searching the last few days that the highest probability of winning lay in talking the killer out of a fight. She hadn't foreseen the knife in her leg. With the knife, not fighting was now her only likely chance of survival. It grated on her, though, to talk to him, rather than attack. The man had hurt her prince. She wanted to make him bleed.

Kimura thought about it. "Who are you?" Her blades tended to make an impression, even if her small frame didn't. He showed some caution.

"Someone who would really like to chop you into little pieces, but I have other priorities."

Kimura growled at her from a face gone furry and fanged.

Liliana snarled back at him, showing him her fangs and glaring at him with all her eyes.

He blinked, startled. "What are you?" he growled in a voice gone canine gruff.

"Dangerous," she told him. "And you are running out of time. The police will arrive in this room in minutes. They are already coming up the stairs."

Kimura paused, and his ears swiveled a little. The jackal could hear that she was telling the truth.

"Fight me, and they will find us both here. I am known to them as a friend. They will shoot you, not me. Leave, and you will get away clean."

The jackal started toward the door.

"Wait," Liliana said.

"Why?"

"Two policemen will come to the door. One will leave. You should wait until one leaves, so that you only have to fight one on the way out."

Officer Wu knocked on the door and shouted for his captain. After a few seconds, he left to go get a key from the landlord.

Kimura warily peered through the peephole, staying half turned so he could watch her as well. "Why did you warn me?"

"I like Officer Wu. You would have killed him." She had an idea. "Give me your word to leave the other officer alive, and I will tell you where you are most likely to find information about the coins you seek."

"Where?"

"Go to Nick Burkhardt's house."

He nodded. "I won't kill the cop."

Liliana looked with her third eyes.

Surprisingly, the jackal told her the truth.

Kimura slammed the door into the waiting officer. The schakale stabbed the officer while he was stunned, but not fatally, and escaped.

The moment he walked out the door, Kimura ceased to matter.

Liliana dropped to her knees in front of her battered prince. She slit the ropes holding his right hand to the chair.

"Why did you send the killer to Nick's place?"

"He will believe that I misled him. He will go to Hank's place first, and do no real harm. By the time he gets to Nick's place, Juliet will not be there and Nick will be ready for him. Our Grimm will slam that jackal's head through a wall." Nick had even more right to revenge on Kimura than she did.

Sean's lips twitched in amusement. "That's my deadly little spider."

She followed her prince forward into the future with her fourth eyes. Surely, she had saved him. Surely she would see him standing tall and directing his men on the hunt for the killer tomorrow.

Sean Renard still had no future. She had missed something. She opened all of her eyes and looked closely at her prince, trying to find what would kill him.

Her second eyes gave her the answer, something that she couldn't see with her fourth eyes since they only saw in normal spectrums.

Sean's right eye had a dilated pupil, and that side of his head showed far too much heat. His head injury wasn't just streaming blood down his face. It was bleeding into his brain. Liliana blinked tears. "Oh, my sweet prince. I failed you. The jackal has already killed you."

"I'm all right, Liliana. You saved me just like you said you would." His hand touched her face, with his subtle pleased smile.

"You cannot see through your right eye, can you?" When she gave her word not to bite him without his permission, that was when he stopped having a future. If she hadn't done that, she would simply bite him now, without asking. She didn't have two years to convince him. She had less than two minutes.

He blinked, fuzzily. "I can't. That's bad, isn't it?"

"Let me bite you, Sean. I can still save you."

"No."

"That head injury will kill you within minutes without the healing of my venom." She cupped his face between her hands, blinking tears that made his face swim in her vision. "Please, don't make me watch you die."

"Protect the man you love," he said, softly. "Did you mean that?" His thumb wiped away a tear from her cheek.

"I always mean what I say."

"You do, don't you." He nodded, slightly, wincing when even that tiny movement caused him pain. "All right. It seems I have little to lose."

Liliana didn't waste any time, she bit him on the shoulder, sinking fangs into the muscle and hoping it would be enough.

He flinched.

"I'm sorry. I don't have time to be gentle."

He smiled, a genuine smile that filled his whole face with peace. His body relaxed. The venom had dampened the pain, and replaced it with euphoria.

Liliana didn't know if she was too late, if there was time for the venom to save him, but at least her prince would not die in agony.

He sunk his fingers in her hair and pulled her close to him. "Kiss me."

Liliana kissed him, holding his head cradled gently in her hands, not caring that he tasted of blood and her salty tears. If he would die in seconds, she wanted to spend those seconds kissing him one last time.

She watched his sharp mind fade to darkness.

His hand dropped limply from her hair.

His eyes rolled back in his head and his eyelids fluttered closed. His head lay heavy against her hands.

Liliana tilted the chair on its side, so he could lie down, and pillowed his battered head on his arm.

She could hear voices in the hallway outside. She had to go.

She limped to the balcony, closed the sliding glass door behind her, and found her dangling line.

As the police burst into the room behind her, Liliana painfully hand-over-handed up to the balcony above Sean's. Fortunately, whoever's condo that was, they weren't at home.

Liliana lay there on a stranger's balcony, waiting and watching with her fourth eyes, and enduring the steady throb of agony in her leg and overstrained left arm.

Liliana held her breath as Nick put two fingers to his captain's neck.


	10. Being Useful

Being Useful

"He's alive," Nick said.

Liliana wept in relief. She had done it.

She had saved her prince.

About ten minutes later, about the time the paramedics arrived, he regained consciousness. Paramedics put a simple criss-crossed tape stitch on the cut over his eye, which had already stopped bleeding.

One paramedic shined a light in Sean's eyes and said, "No sign of a concussion. You got lucky, captain."

Liliana saw his lips twitch. "Very lucky."

The police took hours to dust the condo for fingerprints and investigate for other evidence, as well as removing the body of the poor housekeeper. Liliana felt bad that she hadn't saved the woman, but considering the day she had, she probably would have failed to save her, even if she had seen her death ahead of time.

When the police finally finished sweeping the apartment and moved on, Liliana slid down her line to Sean's balcony. She didn't think she could make it all the way to the ground without falling.

She had seen that he would make an excuse to his men to go back and get something he had forgotten, so he could be in his condo alone for a few minutes. The other police went on without him.

She limped into the trashed living room and closed the glass door, just as the front door opened again.

Sean smiled at her, full and real and delighted. "You look terrible, little spider."

Liliana laughed. "You are still not supposed to say that."

She limped a few steps toward him. He met her in the middle with an engulfing embrace that pulled her off her feet and all but took the breath from her. She gloried in it. Her prince was alive!

"Is that a knife sticking out of your leg?" he asked her when they broke apart at last.

"I did mention that I had an awful day."

"You clearly weren't exaggerating."

"Could I use your elevator, please? I'm not sure I can climb down the building without dying."

He chuckled. "I can do better than that." He lifted her up in his arms and carried her out of his apartment. "I seem to end up carrying you a lot."

"I don't mind." Liliana snuggled into his chest, overwhelmed with relief and warmth. He was alive.

As he they waited for the elevator doors to open, he asked, "Where is your other shoe?"

"On the roof."

He just shook his head, not bothering to ask how it ended up there.

Liliana stroked his shoulder where she bit him as they rode eight stories down a whole lot easier than she had gone up. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

"You saved my life, little spider. A minor puncture wound is a small price to pay."

"The venom wasn't so bad as you thought, was it?"

He looked thoughtful. "Actually, it was very pleasant."

"You were worried that I would make you do something you didn't want to do under the influence, but I didn't."

"You did kiss me," he teased her.

"You told me to. Even half dead and high on venom, you're still bossy."

He laughed. "I don't think I've ever been called that, but I can't argue that it's not accurate."

He carried her through the lobby, ignoring the odd looks he got from the security people.

His face sobered and he looked down at her for a moment as they reached his car in the parking garage.

Liliana wished she could look inside him then. She couldn't read his expression.

"You've bitten me. Does that mean I'm yours?"

She touched his bruised cheek gently. "That is a question for you. You already know you own my heart. I am yours. Are you mine?"

His jaw clenched and his eyes dropped from hers. "Liliana, it's not that simple for me. My life can be … complicated."

Liliana nodded. It was an answer. Not the answer she wanted to hear, but an honest one.

He set her gently on her feet next to his car. "Should I take you home?"

"Could you drop me off at the spice shop instead? I need to talk to Rosalee about Juliette."

"Adalind's revenge, I gather? Will that happen today?"

"Yes. I just don't know how it's supposed to be revenge against you. It seems like Juliette's sickness only hurts Nick. And Juliette, of course."

Liliana closed her human eyes while Sean drove. She watched Juliette in the hospital. She followed her forward in time, expecting to see her slowly waste away and die, as she had every other time she looked. She kept hoping that some probability would shift and another possibility would come into being. There was a flicker, and then she saw a new future. Juliette woke up. Nick kissed her, delighted.

Lilian backed up in time to the flicker, and saw her prince kiss Juliette. Moments later, Juliette woke up.

"Oh!" Liliana said. As long as there was almost no chance of Sean Renard surviving, Juliette had no chance of surviving. Their fates were tied together.

"What?"

"It's you! You're the only one who can save Juliette."

"Why me?"

"It's like a story. Only a prince of pure heart can break the spell on sleeping beauty."

Sean scoffed. "I don't qualify."

"From what I have seen of your cousin and your brother, you are, by far, the purest prince available."

Sean chuckled. "I think that was meant to be a compliment." He thought for a moment, then nodded. "So, what do I need to do to save Juliette?"

Liliana looked again and shrugged. It looked fairly simple. "Kiss her."

"If this is meant to be Adalind's revenge on me, kissing a pretty girl in a coma doesn't seem anywhere near … cruel, petty and spiteful enough."

Liliana considered her prince's previous relationship with the golden-haired beast, and did not like her conclusion. "You knew exactly what sort of person she was, and you despised her from the beginning, but you still made her yours."

"She was useful."

"Ah." Liliana didn't say anything else. Liliana knew that she had been useful to the prince, and that she still was. If there ever came a time when she was not, then she would find out if her prince was hers, or if she would be discarded as Adelind had been. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to know.

She ran the torn hem of her skirt through her fingers, and watched as the cloth moved between them. It didn't always calm her, but at least it gave her something to look at that didn't hurt.

Sean's eyes glanced from the road to her and back. "Liliana, …"

She didn't let him finish. "You are right, of course. I will search the timelines forward and back, yours and Juliette's and Adelind's. This is undoubtedly a trap of some sort. I will find out what kind of trap and how it can be avoided."

He looked like he was going to say something else, but Liliana kept her eyes on her fingers. Finally, he nodded. "Let me know what you find."

He pulled up in front of the spice shop. "Do you need help getting to the door?"

"I ran six blocks and climbed a twelve story building with this knife in my leg. I think I can cross the sidewalk." She realized she was out of sorts. She should be delighted. She had saved her prince, saved Officer Wu, and discovered the key to saving Juliette. She should be throwing a mental party.

Instead, the air felt heavy, her leg and arm throbbed, and she wished she could just go home.

She opened the car door.

Sean put a hand on her arm to stop her. "Liliana."

She looked at him, only with her human eyes because he hadn't given her permission for more.

"You're not Adelind."

"Of course not. Adelind is a hexenbiest. And a bitch. And she's blonde."

He tried again. "I mean you're not useful."

Liliana blinked, confused and a little hurt. "But I just saved your life."

Sean ran his hand across his short hair. Something was bothering him. "I mean you're not just useful."

Liliana thought about the conversation, ran it back through her head, trying to figure out what he meant. "Oh." The heaviness in her heart lifted. She smiled a little. "I think you meant that as a compliment."

He smiled back at her, lips twisted with irony. "I'm usually better at flattery."

Liliana leaned up and kissed him quickly with a mischievous grin. "Maybe you should work on that. Flattery is a useful skill for princes."

"Are you teasing me?" He sounded a little shocked.

"Someone should. You don't smile enough." She got out of the car and limped across the sidewalk to the spice shop.

She watched his face with her fourth eyes, so he wouldn't know she was watching.

As he drove away, his face lit with a broad, genuine, very happy and amused smile.

Liliana nodded in satisfaction. He really should smile like that more often. She would make sure that he did.

Now, she needed to find out what trap Adelind had set for him. She had saved him once. She didn't want to take the chance that she wouldn't succeed next time.


	11. Poisoned Catch 22

Poisoned Catch 22

Rosalee helped Liliana remove the knife from her calf. The nice fox dressed the wound with a poultice and put a pressure bandage on her leg. She offered Liliana some of that same wonderful painkiller that she used when she broke her arm, but Liliana kept the medicine for later instead of taking it immediately.

She asked permission to spend some time in Rosalee's comfortable day bed in her back room.

"That's fine, Lilly. Stay as long as you like. That leg looks like it really hurts. Are you sure you won't take the painkiller now?"

"I need to stay alert. A lot is happening today. And you need to stay here. Monroe will need you to help decipher the poison on a cat's claws."

"That would be a strange request. Are you sure about that?"

Monroe came in the front door with a cat in a plastic carrier in his hand.

Rosalee gave her a warm smile and shook her head. "I should know better by now."

As Rosalee went to meet Monroe, Liliana said, "Be careful. The cat is deceptive. It purrs before it strikes."

Liliana closed her human eyes and opened her fourth eyes. She had to find the trap in Juliette's sickness, and how her prince could both save Juliette and avoid the trap.

She checked on her favorite Grimm first, just to make sure he was all right. The jackal had been to Nick's house already. She saw police there, placing the unconscious and handcuffed jackal under arrest.

Her prince was there, too. He must have gone there after dropping her off.

Liliana looked backward to see the jackal that had nearly killed her prince fight her favorite Grimm. She took considerable satisfaction in every blow that landed on the jackal's body.

When the woman in black joined the fight, Liliana watched even more closely, wondering who she was and why she was important.

"Mom?" Nick said.

Ah. That explained a lot.

Liliana was tempted to spend more time following Nick's mother through time to learn more about her, but she had other priorities.

Kelly Burkhardt pulled the jackal's shirt down to reveal tattoos on his back.

"Dragon's tongue."

Liliana had dealings with them before. Random images from various points in time flashed in her mind, some from the past, some from the future. One from the future caught her attention.

Her prince looked at a laptop picture of the Japanese royal family. "You spoke with the dragon's tongue," he said to himself.

Liliana blinked her fourth eyes to clear the image. It was important and she would remember, but it was not related to her current problem. She knew how easy it was to drift when exploring time lines.

She decided that maybe Juliette was the best timeline to follow to find the trap. Juliette was the trap, in some way, or at least the bait.

Liliana followed her into that still fairly unlikely future where the prince kissed her and she woke up. It was harder to follow a future that wasn't likely to happen, but she saw the moment after Juliette woke up fairly clearly.

Nick kissed her and told her how much he loved her.

Juliette's response was, "Who are you?"

"Oh!" She followed forward a few days to make sure the memory loss was permanent, not just a result of Juliette still waking up from the coma. No, it was part of Adelind's poison. How horrible.

Cruel, petty and spiteful. Her prince was right.

Liliana jumped up and ran into the other part of the shop where Monroe and Rosalee were sticking the cat's paws in milk.

"She is stealing Nick! We must stop her!"

Monroe looked up. "Hi Lilly, nice to see you, too." He looked down at the milk. "Oh, what about blue?"

Rosalee looked deeply concerned. "We have to talk to Nick."

Liliana looked at what they were doing with her fourth eyes, followed it backward and forward a little. Rosalee had figured out the same thing she had. "Yes! You must stop the memory loss! She will steal Nick from Juliette's heart and mind."

Rosalee nodded. "If we don't stop it, the zaubertank will steal Juliette's memories completely."

Monroe said, "I'll drive."

"Go, quickly," Liliana said. "I must still find the other part of the trap."

Rosalee gave Liliana a key. "Lock the door behind you when you leave."

Liliana looked at the cat in its carrier, still drowsy from the valerian Rosalee had dosed it with. She followed the cat backward, and saw Adelind feed it the potion. She followed it forward and saw that the cat had no future. It would die within days, either hit by a car or driven mad and slowly, painfully poisoned by the potion in its body. Adelind had slain her own pet without a second thought.

"I am sorry, little one, but if I were you, I would choose the faster death." She did a quick check on the cat's timeline to make sure there was no chance that she would hurt Rosalee or Monroe.

Liliana ripped the cat carrier open with her arm blades, doing her best to make it look like the cat had done it.

She went back and laid down, closing the door between the two rooms so the insane cat wouldn't attack her while she drifted in time.

She had discovered part of the nature of the trap by following Juliette forward. She focused on that promising path, and followed her more forward, pushing through the haze and flickers of such an unlikely future. An image she never would have expected assaulted her.

Her prince kissed Juliette in the spice shop.

Monroe walked in and saw them kissing. They pulled apart reluctantly.

Liliana jumped from watching Juliette to watching Sean Renard. She followed him backward from that point in time, looking for intersections with Juliette. She saw him speak to her in a coffee shop under the false pretense of concern for Nick, saw him kissing her on her front porch, saw him sneak into her house using the key she hid under a planter by the front door.

Her prince had turned into a creepy stalker, like Detective Hank had been when under Adelind's spell.

She followed Sean back and back to a single moment, when he kissed Juliette as she lay in her poisoned sleep. That was the turning point. That was when her prince became obsessed with Nick's beloved.

That was the trap.

Adelind would steal Nick from Juliette's heart and replace him with Sean.

It would drive a wedge between the two men that would destroy any chance of them becoming allies as her prince intended. It would hurt Nick deeply, strike him to the soul, and it would sabotage her prince's careful plans.

Adelind's revenge.

Liliana saw a moment in the future when Sean tried to tell Nick who he was.

"We have a lot to talk about," Sean said.

"Let's start with this." Nick punched him in the face.

But if Sean did not kiss Juliette, Juliette would die. Nick would be shattered. He would probably die as well. And all of Sean's plans would come to nothing. Even if Nick survived, if he ever found out that Sean could have saved his Juliette and didn't, the Grimm would never forgive the prince.

Adelind would win either way.

Liliana found the trap. The question was, could she find a way out of it?

Liliana called a cab with the handy phone that Sean gave her.

While the cab took her to the hospital, she indulged her curiosity about Nick's mother a little.

She followed her forward and saw her conversations with Nick. Liliana saw why she had let her son believe she was dead. She saw flashes in Kelly Burkhardt's past of a life of anger, fear and violence, with no one she could trust.

Her attitude as she spoke to Nick was filled with regret for missing so much of her son's life.

It was the coins again. They had stolen Nick's mother from him.

The coins of Zakynthos had caused far too much pain.

If Kelly Burkhardt told the truth when she said she intended to destroy the coins, Liliana would give the Grimm all the help she could.

She saw another problem when she went forward, watching both Nick and Kelly Burkhardt over the next few days.

A very, very big problem, with very big teeth.

Liliana sighed. As if her life were not complicated enough.

Liliana limped through the hospital corridors, her bandaged injury giving her easy access to much of the building. People looked at her and thought, patient.

She arrived at the quarantine unit about the same time her prince did and slipped in behind him when he bribed an orderly to let him in.

Sean closed the curtain around the comatose Juliette, and turned around to find Liliana standing behind him.

Liliana was very good at stealth, even with a knife wound in her leg. Being small helped. The bright colors she wore didn't help, but she liked them, so she wore them anyway.

Sean looked outside the curtain for a moment to see if anyone else had seen her, but they hadn't.

"What are you doing here?"

"Look at Juliette's eyes."

Rather than question her, he gently opened one of Juliette's eyes, and saw the ugly black slowly obliterating her natural pretty blue-gray color and bleeding into the whites around.

"What does it mean?" he asked her.

"Juliette's memory is being erased. The first thing she will lose is Nick. Adelind is stealing him from her."

"If I kiss her, that will stop it?" He started to lean down.

"Not yet, no. You must drink a potion first. And you don't know the catch yet." Liliana couldn't look at him. She petted Juliette's beautiful red hair. Her prince could save the gentle healer of animals. But Liliana would lose his heart that she had only just begun to win.

Adelind didn't know that Liliana had helped Nick defeat her, so she had no reason to target Liliana's heart with this cruel trap. But she had hit the mark, nonetheless.

"I gather you figured it out?" Sean prompted her.

"The poison is stealing Nick from Juliette's heart and mind even now. If you do not kiss her, her mind will fade to nothing and she will die. If you kiss her, she will not die. She will wake up and you will take Nick's place in her heart."

"That's it? Adelind's revenge is making Juliette forget Nick and fall in love with me?"

"And you fall in love with her," Liliana whispered.

"I see." Sean pulled Liliana into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "It's a lie, you know. It's not real."

"I saw what you and Adelind did to Detective Hank, and how it changed him. This will do the same to you."

"So, I'll die if I have sex with Juliette?"

"I don't know. Things are so tangled. I can't see that far ahead. I don't know what Adelind's end game is."

"It doesn't matter. I won't walk into the trap." His voice was hard and angry.

"If you don't, Juliette will die," Liliana said. "You can't let that happen, my prince."

"Why can't I?"

Liliana looked up at him. He meant it. He would let Juliette die before he would allow himself to be manipulated. Sometimes, she forgot that her prince was not a man driven by compassion.

She thought about it from his point of view, and knew what would convince him. "Nick will never forgive you if you let her die."

"How would he ever know?" He frowned down at her. "You wouldn't tell him. You gave me your word to keep my secrets, and you keep your word."

"I would not have to tell him. He will soon know that only a royal prince can save her. If you do not, the moment you reveal yourself, he will know that you could have saved her and didn't."

"Damn," he swore softly. "You're right."

"Adelind has driven a wedge between you and Nick regardless of what you choose to do."

Sean ran his hand through his short, thick hair. His jaw muscles jumped as he looked at the lovely Juliette in her poisoned sleep. He rubbed his hand over his face. He looked down at Liliana. "I've worked a long time for this. What do you think is the best way forward?"

Liliana grinned slightly. "Are you asking me to tell you what to do?"

He wasn't smiling. "I'm asking you for advice."

Liliana sighed. "Save Juliette."

"You think that's my best option?"

"No. I think it will be awful for you. The potion you must take will hurt, more than being tortured by that jackal. Your heart and mind will be manipulated which is your idea of Hell. And Nick will still punch you in the face when you finally tell him who you are."

Sean's lips twisted with irony. "You make it sound so appealing. How could I do anything else?"

Liliana looked him directly in his complexly layered hazel green eyes. "I see what lies ahead. That is my gift. And I tell the truth about what I see. That is why you trust me. I do not want you to make this decision blind, but that is the decision I want you to make."

"Why?"

"Because Juliette is innocent. Adelind has done this because I gave Nick the knowledge he needed to defeat her, and because you rejected her when she was no longer useful. In taking her revenge on you, on Nick, and unknowingly on me, Adelind is destroying someone beautiful and brave and gentle, who did nothing wrong. Juliette had no part in this, but she is paying for our actions."

Sean looked at Juliette, lying silent and still, her bright red hair spread out on the white hospital pillow, machines hooked up to her beeping softly.

"We are responsible for this," Liliana said. "You are responsible. And you are the only one who can save her. That is why you must."

Sean cupped Liliana's face in his hand. His thumb stroked her cheek. "No one talks about honor much anymore, little spider. You remind me what the word means."

He leaned down and kissed her.

She opened her third eyes and saw in his mind that he would do what he had to do to save Juliette, no matter how bad it got. Her prince was not a compassionate man, but he was an honorable man. Juliette was his responsibility to save, so he would save her.

Liliana kissed him tenderly. He would make a wonderful leader. He would make a wonderful mate if she could win him over. Assuming she didn't lose him to Adelind's trap. She had just pushed the man she loved into someone else's arms, as well as into an entangling trap that might kill him.

"I will find a way, my prince. I will find a way to set you free. I swear it."

He smiled. "If anyone can, I believe you will."


	12. Facts of Life

Facts of Life

Liliana rode with Sean when he went to Adelind's mother, Catherine's house. The hexenbiest would know the potion Sean needed to drink to simulate purity of heart so he could save Juliette. Sean had some hold over the woman that Liliana did not understand, so she would do whatever the prince asked.

Liliana waited for him in the car, sliding down a bit, so the woman would not see her. She had no desire to draw the attention of such a powerful, and if she was anything like her daughter, vindictive individual.

She took the time alone to check on the other big problem that she had seen coming.

Her mind reeled.

Bloody death. A lot of it. Chunks of dead bodies and a man with huge fangs gnawing on them.

Liliana shuddered.

Even with the amount of blood and death she had seen lately, the scene made her nauseous.

She hated when her family came to visit.

She watched the mauvais dentes for some time. She saw him speak to Eric Renard, Sean's brother, on the phone.

Marnassier wasn't in town to visit. He had been sent by Sean's brother to kill her favorite Grimm.

This caused her a serious dilemma.

Friend versus family.

Liliana all but twisted her skirt into rags. What was she going to do?

She started to dial Nick's number, but hesitated.

She saw three possibilities, two about equally likely, one only a flicker.

Possibility one: Nick would fight Marnassier alone. The mauvais dentes would kill the Grimm brutally, and eat his heart as was his custom with an enemy who fought bravely.

Possibility two: Nick and his mother would fight Marnassier together. The two Grimms fighting as a team would defeat and kill the mauvais dente.

Highly unlikely possibility three: Liliana would talk Marnassier out of going after the Grimm. Everyone would live.

She had recently discovered text messages. Phoebe had showed her how they worked on her new phone.

Liliana wrote a message to Nick: If you must fight the mauvais dentes, do not fight alone. Two Grimms are better than one.

She clicked SEND just as Sean got back to the car.

She twisted her skirt in her hands, nearly tearing the fabric.

She had chosen her friend over Marnassier.

She would try to talk Marnassier out of going after the Grimm, but if he refused, what she had just done would ensure that Nick survived the fight, not the mauvais dentes.

After that, there would be Hell to pay.

Sean pulled out to take her home. He reached over and put one huge hand over her small, slender hands where they twisted and worried the fabric of her skirt. "It will be a while before the potion is ready. We have some time," he said soothingly.

Liliana blinked at him for a moment, confused as to what he was talking about. Oh. Right. "There is something else."

"What's wrong?"

"Your brother has hired an assassin to kill Nick and take his key."

Sean's nostrils flared and his jaw clenched. His green eyes went almost steel gray and hard as granite. Her prince tended to be very subtle when expressing pleasant emotions, but Liliana had no difficulty discerning when he was angry. "Who? When?"

"This man is known to me. He arrived in Portland today."

"Has he contacted you?"

"Not yet, but he probably will."

"What can you tell me about him?"

Liliana pictured Marnassier in her mind in his human form. "He is a mauvais dentes. He is about six feet tall, very handsome, with brown hair and blue eyes, and a powerful physique."

Sean's eyebrows went up. "And?"

"He is a deadly fierce fighter, graceful, skilled and intelligent, a magnificent warrior. He lives by an assassin's strict code of honor, so you can trust his word as if it were carved in stone."

Sean's voice went bland. "He sounds very impressive."

"He is the ideal mate for a spinnesehen." Her mother had told her that many times. She held Marnassier up as the example of what Liliana should look for in a mate.

"So, you have a relationship with this mauvais dentes?" Sean asked, voice still very casual.

"Yes, of course." Liliana had been lost in her own misery, but she still realized that something was off with Sean. He never sounded that bored and unconcerned except when he was actually very concerned.

She glanced at him and saw that his knuckles were white on the steering wheel. It took her a moment to realize why. "Oh." She smiled. "Relax, my prince. He is my sister's husband."

"Ah." He chuckled a little and his hands lost their death grip on the steering wheel. "I'm not usually that prone to jumping to conclusions. This thing with Juliette has me a little on edge."

"Do you fear that you will lose me when the trap steals your heart?" she asked him. It was what she feared, that the delicate bond they had begun to forge wouldn't survive the hexenbiest's revenge.

He glanced off the road for a moment to look at her. His green eyes were softer than she had ever seen them. "Yes," he admitted. It took a lot for him to admit fear. He admitted a lot of tender feelings for her in the same moment.

Liliana leaned her head against his shoulder and held onto his muscular arm clad in his usual impeccable suit. "I am afraid, too," she told him. It felt better, somehow. Sharing their fear seemed to lessen it.

They were both silent for a while, lost in their own dark thoughts and the warmth of their connection.

As Sean pulled up in front of Liliana's house, he said, "I'll call my brother tomorrow. It's past midnight there now. I'll see if I can get Eric to call off this assassin."

"Thank you. If he and Nick fight, either Nick will die, or my sister's husband will die."

"And I thought you were in a delicate position caught between me and Nick."

"It is far worse than social awkwardness, my prince. No spinnesehen would allow her mate to be slain without seeking vengeance. If Nick kills Marnassier, and it is known, my sister will hunt him down and kill him. No one will be able to stop her."

"Even though he was sent to kill Nick? It's clearly self-defense."

"That would matter to the law. A spinnesehen who has lost her mate does not react rationally. Isabella and Marnassier have been together for more than two hundred years. They had two daughters and a son the last time I spoke to them."

"When was that?"

Liliana had to think hard to remember. Time passed so quickly when she wasn't paying attention. "More than two decades ago." It made her feel sad that she had become so separated from her family.

"Sean, will you stay with me tonight?" She still held his arm.

He kissed her hair. "Where should I park?"

"In the garage, of course."

Sean got out, opened the garage door, stood there for a moment looking at her web of ropes and bars, and came back to the car.

"I left enough room for a car in case I ever needed it, on the left side."

He pulled in, parked and got out. The door into her house was on his side of the car only a couple steps away. There was a clear path through the maze of obstacles.

Liliana got out of the car, closed the door and went vertical. Her leg hurt, so she didn't really want to walk, and there were a lot of bars and lines she would have to get around in order to circle the car and reach the door. This was easier. She grabbed a line, swung around and up, let go and flew to a stationary bar, caught it, flipped up, swung over the car by one knee on a hanging bar, grabbed a line and swung to a light one-footed landing by the door next to her prince.

He smiled. "You always keep things interesting."

"Are you hungry?" she asked him.

"I am, actually." He took off his jacket and tie, removed his gun holster, and unbuttoned the first couple of buttons on his shirt, getting comfortable. She showed him the little coat closet by the front door, so he could hang his jacket and gun.

She smiled to herself, thinking it was a good step forward in their relationship that he no longer felt he needed to have his weapon within reach.

Liliana limped into her kitchen, climbed on the counter, and attached a couple of short lines to the ceiling supports. She always liked the exposed beam structure of her little house.

If she hadn't been fuzzy-headed from painkillers, she might have thought of this when her ankle was sprained. Or, if Phoebe hadn't kept her fed so well that she gained weight, it might have mattered enough for her to think of it, even with the painkillers.

Her galley kitchen was far too small to fit both her and Sean. In fact, Sean didn't really seem to fit in her house at all. He was just built along larger lines. He didn't have to duck through doorways or anything, but his height did feel more overwhelming, and what seemed cozy to her, had to feel a little cramped to him. He leaned in the doorway, filling it completely, and watched her cook. She used the dangling lines to get from the refrigerator to the stove to the sink, without having to put any weight on her sore leg.

He chatted with her as she worked. "You said your sister had a son. I thought spinnesehen children were always daughters?"

Liliana laughed. "Spinnesehen are always girls, but not our children. During the paruungzeit, every one hundred years, a spinnesehen conceives a daughter. But during the hundred years in between, she can conceive a child like any other woman, although, spinnesehen are not as fertile as human women. Any child born between paruungzeit will be a son, the race of the father."

Liliana had nearly a whole leftover rotisserie chicken in the refrigerator, and a variety of vegetables. She heated some chicken broth that she saved in the freezer, and tossed in the entire chicken, plus all the pan drippings.

Sean raised an eyebrow, and his lips quirked in amusement, but he made no comment on her cooking methods. "Since your father was a lowan, you're saying you have lowan brothers?"

"I had three brothers that I knew. My mother told me of two others that died long before I was born. My eldest brother that I knew, and his two sons, died in Europe, killed by Hitler's verrat. He was past eighty at the time."

Liliana added diced onions, minced garlic, and chopped mushrooms to a skillet with olive oil, salt and pepper. She chopped the vegetables in seconds with her favorite knife. When the onions started to turn translucent, she added the mixture to the pot with the chicken and the broth.

"My other two brothers made it to the US with me and my second mother. They both died of old age years ago, but their descendents live here in Portland." She smiled. "I met a little boy recently who was named for my father. He will be the next lowan king of Oregan after Daniel, if the future does not shift dramatically." She added a dash of cayenne pepper and some oregano to the pot.

"You will have a king in the family soon, then."

"Maybe in two or three decades." Liliana shrugged. "It would not be the first, not even close. My father could have been king of Nemea. He felt his brother would be a better ruler. I cannot say if he was right as I never met his brother. He died centuries before I was born, but I know my father would have made a great king." Liliana chopped some baby zucchini from her little back yard garden, sautéed it lightly in a little butter, and added it to the pot. "I hope the little boy who bears his name will rule half as well as he would have."

"What do you mean by 'not even close." Have there been other kings in your family?"

Liliana thought about all the family and race stories that she knew from her childhood. "Well, there was said to be a kingdom where a spinnesehen ruled, but it was a very long time ago. Then there was a spinnesehen who married a Chinese emperor a few thousand years ago, one who married an Arabian prince a few centuries ago, and of course, there was my mother's sister who married Ghengis Khan, but that didn't work out so well."

"What happened?" he asked, eyes light and amused.

"He did not survive her first paruungzeit. My mother told me the story when I was young as a cautionary example of why I should choose my mate carefully."

"You're telling me that your mother's sister killed Ghengis Khan?" Sean sounded incredulous.

"Accidentally. She was heartbroken and allowed herself to be executed afterward by Temujin's sons and relatives. She loved him, but he was not strong enough to be the mate of a spinnesehen. Perhaps if she had shared venom with him before they were married, he might have survived."

Liliana let the soup simmer for a while. She cut up some crusty bread from a local bakery, spread a little butter on it, sprinkled it with parmesan cheese and popped it in the oven for a few minutes to toast.

"In those days, there was a lot of social pressure not to have sex before marriage, especially with rulers. If she had sex with him outside of marriage, that sort of made her mistress material. To be a potential wife, you had to wait."

"You're entirely serious, aren't you?" He sounded more amazed than uncertain.

Liliana looked at him for a moment. "Of course. Why would I make that up? It's an awful story." She pulled two spoons and two hand-made ceramic bowls out of her cupboard. If she was going to continue to have guests, she might have to buy more dishes.

She pulled the chicken out of the soup with tongs. Most of the meat fell off the bone back into the soup. The rest she quickly stripped off with two forks so she wouldn't burn her fingers.

She hadn't planned for Sean to have dinner with her, so she hadn't stocked her house with food that Sean would like. She hoped the simple chicken soup was acceptable. She had gotten one thing, though, that she knew he would enjoy.

With a smug smile, she pulled a bottle of wine out of the refrigerator. It wasn't the proper way to chill wine, but she didn't exactly have a wine cellar. She handed the bottle to Sean along with a corkscrew. "If you're going to stand there, you might as well help."

He looked at the bottle. His eyebrows went up. "This is my favorite vintage. How did you know?"

Liliana winked at him with a mischievous grin.

He chuckled, and gifted her with a broad smile that lit up his face.

She liked making him smile. The bottle had cost a few hundred dollars, but that moment made it worth every penny.

She handed two wine glasses to Sean with directions to set them on the little folding end table next to the couch. She filled the two bowls with soup and handed one to Sean. She limped over to her couch and sat down.

Sean sat down next to her on the couch, eyeing the soup dubiously.

"Sorry. I converted my dining room into my business, so this is the only place I have to sit for dinner." Liliana had always felt like her tiny house was cozy. She found herself looking at it through the eyes of her elegant prince, and wondering if he found it shabby or poor, in addition to tiny. She couldn't look in his mind to see, though. She didn't have permission.

He scooped soup with the spoon and dumped it back in the bowl repeatedly, to speed cooling. "You were telling me how your aunt accidentally killed Ghengis Khan." He sipped wine while she talked. He had a habit of drawing her out. She talked more with Sean than with anyone else.

"Temujin was no longer young, and he had been injured in a fall from a horse. My mother's sister probably intended her venom to heal him. But the paruunzeit was the wrong time to be with a weakened mate, especially one she had not shared venom with before."

"Why? How did she kill him?"

"Um, …" Liliana felt her cheeks get hot. "It was, well, on their wedding night, during sex. He probably died from her venom."

He chuckled. "I can think of worse ways to die." Then he looked thoughtful. "But I've experienced your venom. It's the opposite of deadly. It saved my life."

Liliana pulled the little jar of medicine that Rosalee had given her out of her pocket and showed it to him. "This is the painkiller that I took when my arm was broken. It is a wonderful medicine, and made my recovery far easier." She handed him the bottle.

"Okay." He looked at the small bottle of yellow powder, no more than a couple of teaspoons worth.

"It is also a highly addictive and dangerous wesen drug. If I were to take this entire bottle at once, I might die."

"I'm familiar with the dangers of jay. I get what you're saying. Too much of a good thing becomes a serious problem." He handed the bottle back to her.

Liliana sprinkled a little in her wine, and swirled the glass. She didn't want to take too much to make her sleepy or loopy, but she would like for the pain to dull down a bit, so she could enjoy the evening more. She cleared her throat, and tried to stay detached and factual, even though the subject hit very close to home at the moment.

"Every time a spinnesehen shares venom with her mate, his body becomes more accustomed to it. Over time, he develops a resistance so that no amount of venom could harm him." Liliana licked her lips and played with her skirt nervously. "It also helps in surviving paruungzeit if he is already very strong and fit, the fiercer, the better."

"Why is that important?"

Liliana found she couldn't hold on to any sense of detachment. She was deeply embarrassed to be explaining the facts of spinnesehen sex life to the prince, but if anyone needed to know, he did. She tried to cover her embarrassment by eating a big gulp of soup, and only succeeded in burning her mouth. She sipped cool wine to ease the pain. She looked down in the wine glass while she told him the rest. "During paruungzeit, hormones make a spinnesehen a little crazy, and the mating imperative is irresistible. She can be a lot to handle. If her mate isn't strong enough, she could seriously injure or even kill him." She shrugged uncomfortably. "That's what I've been told."

Sean's face showed amusement. His green eyes sparkled. "You have no first-hand experience."

Liliana felt her cheeks warm, and looked down again, hiding behind her fall of dark hair. "In two years, I will be one hundred. It will be my first paruungzeit."

Sean pushed her hair back behind her ear on one side. "I'm honored." His fingers lingered in her hair.

Liliana picked up her hot soup bowl and ate a few bites without really tasting the food. "Sean, what I said about how Temujin died, it's not what my mother told me when she told me the story. It's what I believe to be true, but if my mother was right, then ..." Liliana shrugged. She couldn't say the words. She couldn't push him away, even if it might save his life. But she, at least, had to warn him.

"What did she say?"

"She said that her sister was foolish to choose a human mate, that no ordinary man, not even a royal, was strong enough."

"I see." Sean thought about that for a while.

"Sean, I don't think she was right. I've heard several other stories of spinnesehen whose mates were human, or at least weren't known to be wesen, and they didn't die."

His lips twisted in irony. "It's probably a good thing in this case that I'm not entirely human, then, I suppose." He picked up his own soup bowl and tried a bite. He blinked, looked down in the bowl, and took another bite. "This is delicious." He sounded surprised.

Liliana shrugged, relieved to have a safer subject broached. "It's a little saltier than I intended."

He had the same pleased reaction to the crusty parmesan toast, although that didn't seem to surprise him. His accent when he spoke French and his name, not to mention his preference for French restaurants made it pretty clear where his heart belonged. Crusty bread would be comfort food for him.

She smiled. "I haven't foreseen much for the last few days but death. I haven't even been looking to see who will visit me. Next time, I will know you're coming and have more food that you like ready."

"This is fine. I came for the company, not the food."

They ate in silence. Liliana wasn't normally disturbed by silence, but she had a feeling she knew what occupied her prince's mind, and wished desperately that she had permission to look.

She finished her food about the same time he did, and stood to take the dishes to the kitchen. "Are you still hungry?" she asked him. "There's plenty more."

He shook his head and took the dishes out of her hands. He put them on the side table. "They can wait." He shifted her to face him with his hands on her hips and pulled her forward.

She straddled his lap facing him. She put her knees on the couch and sat on his knees. It put their faces at the same level, making it very hard for her not to look at him.

"Liliana, you haven't scared me off. I get the impression you're trying to, though." He lifted her face up to him when she tried to look away. No hiding allowed.

"I am a dangerous person to get close to. I want very much for us to be close, but it's not honorable to tempt you if you don't know what you're risking."

"I take risks every day. And I'm not the safest person to get close to either." His fingers threaded through her hair, pushing it back and enjoying the texture.

"I know the risks I take when I'm with you. I guess that's why I felt like I needed to tell you that."

"You wanted us on even ground." He ran his thumb across her lips. "I appreciate that."

She sank closer to him, settling into his lap and nodded. "And I wanted to know that if anything happened with the spell, with Juliette … If I lost you, I wanted to know if it was because of me being what I am or …"

"Shhh." He said. "You won't lose me." He kissed her. One hand cupped the back of her head, the other slid down her back, making her shiver.

Liliana gratefully sank into his kiss and opened her third eyes.

He was afraid, just like she was, but not of her, or the dangers of being with her. He was afraid of the trap he would walk into open-eyed, and what it might cost him. He was afraid of losing himself to someone else's control, afraid of what he might do that he would later regret, afraid of all his plans falling apart because of one mistake. And he was afraid of losing her.

"You won't lose me, either," she told him.

"Is that foresight?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "It's not what I see. It is what I want. I want to keep you forever."

She kissed him, sinking close until she could feel the warmth of him all along the front of her body.

One of his hands pulled her hips in closer, the other fisted in her hair.

She sank into him, body, mind and soul, and saw that he wanted something she hadn't expected.

She pulled back and looked into his eyes. The changeable color had shifted to deep green beneath lids gone heavy. "Are you sure?"

He nodded.

She unbuttoned his shirt and ran her hands over the hard, gorgeous planes of his chest. She kissed down his throat, and felt him tense, bracing for pain. "Not this time, my prince. I won't hurt you ever again, at least not while I'm in control of my own actions."

He reacted to her words as if she had touched a sensitive spot, his hands tightening on her.

She looked into him, knowing that right now, she had his permission. Fierce desire stared back at her, tempered and made sharper by fear of losing what they had gained.

"I want to make you the same promise, ma petite araignée. I cannot say what I'll do when my actions are not mine to control, but when they are …" His words drowned in tenderness, an overwhelming desire to protect her from all harm.

Liliana kissed him like she wanted to eat him, then down his neck again, over his prominent collarbone to his pectoral muscle, bigger than both her fists together. She kissed and sucked hard enough to leave a mark.

He groaned and held her head to his flesh, his other hand kneading her backside.

The tips of her needle sharp fangs barely grazed his skin, hidden in the hard kiss, giving him a taste of venom, just enough to make his blood sing, and suppress any further pain. Then, she bit him properly, deep into that muscle, when he would feel nothing but pleasure from the bite.

He threw his head back, eyes closed, and let the euphoria wash over him. She watched his fear and worry fade, and warmth and desire fill the space in his heart and mind that they had occupied.

He smiled at her, full and warm. "I am yours to command, ma petite araignée. What would you ask?"

"Etre le mien pour toujours, mon prince sombre."

"I can't promise forever. But for tonight, at least, I am yours." He stood with her still on his lap, one hand under her bottom and the other around her shoulders.

She wrapped her arms and legs around him, and didn't stop kissing him all the way to the bedroom.


	13. Bad Relatives

Bad Relatives

Liliana woke early. She basked in the heat of her prince's body for a while. He took up nearly her entire single bed, with his feet hanging off the end. There wasn't much space left for her, but she couldn't say she really minded.

She slipped out from under his heavy arm, favoring her leg. She experimentally put some weight on it, and found it wasn't that bad. The puncture wound had been deep, but not wide. It would be gone completely in another day or two.

In the shower, she explored a few timelines to check on things. She found an odd satisfaction in watching the jackal who hurt her prince, Kimura, sit alone in his little cell. Her prince had taunted him the day before, told him that he would make sure he spent a lot of time in prison, and then was put to death for what he had done. The jackal mentioned the second Grimm.

Ah. So, her prince knew at least that another Grimm was in town.

Speaking of the second Grimm, Liliana checked on Nick and his mom. They were having an awkward attempt at breakfast, where Kelly tried to cook for her son and failed. It made Liliana very sad for them both.

Kelly wanted to speak with the jackal. He knew something important about the local royalty and the coins, and the wreck that killed Nick's father and Kelly's friend.

Uh, oh. That was not good. Her prince was not ready to reveal himself, and the jackal surely would.

Kelly Burkhardt still sought an answer to why her husband and friend had been murdered. Liliana knew the answer lie in the coins themselves. The royals sought them constantly through the centuries. They played games with people's lives like pawns on a chess board, trying to find those bits of poison metal. Anyone who came in contact with them had their lives tainted in some way.

Liliana had only to watch the painful way Kelly and her son interacted to see that.

Sean slept, while Liliana dressed as silently as she could manage, not bothering to re-apply a dressing to her healing leg wound. Sean's face looked younger. It was too soon for the venom to have that profound an effect on him, so it wasn't that. His face normally carried so many worries, and so much careful restraint. He almost always looked a little bit angry, or at least, focused in concentration as if he were thinking deeply about something important. Now, he just looked peaceful, despite the bruises still on his cheek and medical tape still on his brow.

Liliana let him rest. He had had a very difficult day yesterday. He needed some time to recover. She had come far closer than she wanted to consider to losing him permanently.

There were enough eggs in the refrigerator to feed a small army. Liliana sometimes lived on just eggs when she didn't feel much like cooking. She diced a bit of ham and pulled out some rich, creamy farm cheese, and a whisk.

She would wake Sean with breakfast in bed. She had strong coffee brewing in a French press. She couldn't stand the stuff, but Sean practically lived on it.

She just got two nice omelets made when someone knocked on her door, the home one. She cocked her head sideways, wondering who it could be. Hopefully, just a salesperson or a religious proselytizer.

She looked, and her heart jumped into her throat.

It was Marnassier, her sister's husband.

The mauvais dentes' senses were very sharp. He could already smell the food she had just cooked, and hear her soft footsteps. He knew she was home. She just hoped he hadn't noticed the lingering traces of Sean's unique scent of leather, gunpowder and expensive cologne.

Liliana opened the door. "Bonjour, Marnassier."

He greeted her with a bright, charming smile that made her skin crawl a little. "You look well, Liliana. Comment ça va?" He walked in without being invited.

"Ca va," Liliana said and stepped aside to let him in. It grated on her that he used her full name. Only her prince did that here, and she liked that it was special to him. "Why are you here?"

"Can't family come to visit without having a reason?"

"If you came to Portland to visit, you would have come with my sister."

He looked in her little kitchen and saw the two plates laid out with omelets still steaming. "Hah! I should have known I could not surprise you. You saw me coming." He took one of the plates and sat down on her couch.

Liliana gritted her teeth together. She had not made that for him. "I saw that you would come to Portland. Prince Eric Renard sent you to kill Portland's Grimm. That is why you have come."

"So I have. I hear he took out two reapers at once, that Grimm. He will be a worthy opponent." The big man shoveled food into his mouth, finishing the omelet off in seconds.

"You should not have accepted the contract, Marnassier."

"Oh, why do you say that?"

Liliana sat down beside him on the couch. "You will not win this time, my brother. If you fight him, you will die."

"So certain, eh? I have no chance at all?"

"Virtually none." Liliana fiddled with her skirts. She had made sure that was the case.

"I have killed Grimms before. Why is this Grimm so much more formidable than any other?"

"He is well-trained and he has good friends who aid him. There are other reasons, but they are not my secrets to share." She shrugged. "The reason does not matter. The only way you will survive is not to fight him." She put a hand on his huge bicep. "Go home, Marnassier. My sister would be very sad to lose you."

He woged and growled low. "Isabella would probably be delighted if I got myself killed by a mark."

Liliana blinked. She had not checked on her relatives in … more than a decade. She hadn't realized it had been so long. "What happened?"

As Marnassier got control of his emotions and came back to human form, Liliana noticed something she had missed. Wrinkles. Marnassier had wrinkles around his blue eyes that had not been there the last time she saw him. He had not been sharing venom for a while if time was already touching him enough to show.

"She did not care for my choice of companions," Marnassier said. "Or the way I treated them, even when they were ones that she liked."

Liliana looked, both into him to see that he was glossing over something, not being entirely truthful, and at his past to see what it was. She saw him go through floozy after floozy, with Liliana's aristocratic sister looking on in disgust. He treated the girls roughly, leaving bruises, broken bones, and slashes in their pretty faces, as if he liked marking that he had possessed them. A few even died from his treatment of them.

Isabella had covered her husband's tracks, even helping him dispose of bodies, but she had not been pleased. When she confronted him about it the last time, he attacked her, slashed her face as he had done the other girls.

Isabella threw him out a fourth floor window, took their youngest daughter who was only thirty-two and not quite fully grown, and disappeared. Marnassier had not seen either his wife or adolescent daughter since, although he had searched.

This had happened over a decade ago.

"Oh. You are no longer my sister's husband." It made her sad for Isabella, but she couldn't help but feel a little thrill of sibling victory. Her mother had always held Marnassier up as the ideal mate, and pointed out to Liliana how well her sister had chosen. Liliana had never liked the mauvais dentes.

"No. I no longer have a mate, it seems." He smiled at her. His hand came up to push her hair back from her face.

Liliana pulled away from him.

"I think you should go, Marnassier." Liliana stood up and pointed to her door.

"Don't be like that," he said, standing to face her. "We have been family since before you were born."

"I did not choose you. Isabella chose you, and you treated her badly."

He snatched her wrist faster than Liliana could avoid. "You still haven't mastered fighting with your fourth eyes open," he said, a wide grin on his face.

"I did not know we were fighting," Liliana said, feeling a little afraid. Marnassier was a brutal fighter, and he weighed more than double what she did in pure muscle.

"Which is why you should learn to use your fourth eyes more." He snatched her other wrist.

Liliana tried to pull away, but couldn't.

His big hands held her arm blades where she couldn't use them. He pushed her hands together and engulfed both her slender wrists in a single huge hand. "This doesn't have to go badly, pretty little sister. All I want is a kiss." He yanked her arms high, and pulled her in close, pressing himself against her. He woged, so that the face he pushed close to her had fangs as long as her hand.

"I will kiss you with the edge of my blades when I get free," Liliana spat at him. She snarled, showing him her far less impressive fangs. "Get out of here, now, or I will see you dead."

He put a clawed hand on her jaw, and forced her face toward him. "Just one bite, ma jolie, and I will let you be for now." His claws dug into her cheek, drawing blood. She saw in his mind what he meant by "for now." Marnassier intended to stay in Portland and use her as a source of venom to keep himself young.

"If you wanted venom, you should have been nicer to my sister." Liliana tried to knee him in a tender spot, but he was too experienced a fighter to leave himself vulnerable. He caught the blow on his thigh.

He leaned in to kiss her with a face full of fangs and fur, probably expecting her to defend herself the only way she had left, with her fangs. It was the same strategy she had advised Nick to use against, Adelind, ironically enough.

Sean, wearing only his pants, dove over the couch and knocked Marnassier down with a flying tackle.

Liliana fell with them, since the mauvais dentes didn't release his grip on her wrists at first.

Sean hit him hard enough in the temple to daze him and make him shift momentarily back to his human form. Sean kept hitting him, trying to keep him disoriented, but Marnassier blocked instinctively with his free hand. Most of Sean's punches only hit muscle.

Marnassier growled, woged and turned on Sean, finally releasing Liliana.

The two big men's maneuverability was limited by the small confines of her living room. Arms, legs, punches and claw swipes flew wildly. Liliana scrambled just to get out of the way of flying fists and feet, as they tore into each other.

Sean held his own at first against the two-hundred-year-old clawed and sabre-toothed assassin with superhuman strength and speed.

The fact that he managed to stay alive for the first few seconds put Sean head and shoulders above ninety percent of the hand fighters in the world.

But Liliana didn't need her fourth eyes to know he wouldn't win.

She had seconds before Marnassier killed her lover. Her first instinct was to dive into the fray, but in such close quarters, she was afraid she would hurt Sean with her blades.

Liliana fought for calm. Right now, Sean needed her to think. She could freak out after. She did the only sensible thing. She opened the closet by the front door and pulled out Sean's gun. Marnassier had gotten Sean by the throat, and shoved the taller man against the wall so high that only his toes were touching the ground.

Sean gasped for breath, and threw blows with his hands and feet that Marnassier either blocked with his free hand or ignored.

Liliana put the gun against Marnassier's temple, fourth eyes wide open so that the mauvais dentes could not surprise her again. "Let him go, or the Grimm will not have to kill you. I will do it for him." She considered simply pulling the trigger, but her fourth eyes warned her that Marnassier's death reflex might crush Sean's throat.

"What do you care? Who is this man anyway?" Marnassier asked.

"He is my mate."

Marnassier laughed. "Isabella always said you would choose someone too soft and get him killed. I'll just save you some time and break his neck."

"If you kill him, there is no place on this earth that you can hide from me," Liliana whispered softly. She pushed the gun harder against his temple. "Let him go now."

That at least got Marnassier's attention long enough for Sean to land a solid kick between his legs, where Liliana had failed to strike earlier.

Marnassier's grip on Sean's neck loosened as he hunched in on himself in pain.

Sean got a full breath and got his feet back on solid ground.

The prince did a hold and twist on Marnassier's hand that simultaneously got it off his neck and gave him leverage on the mauvais dentes' arm, which he used to throw the big man through Liliana's front window.

Marnassier landed, rolled, jumped to his feet, and turned to face Sean, growling through his fangs, ready to spring back into the fight.

Liliana handed Sean his gun.

Marnassier's eyes widened in alarm. He sprang away with superhuman reflexes. Sean aimed and fired, repeatedly, as the mauvais dentes ran for his life.

"Damn," Sean swore softly. "Missed."

Liliana jumped onto her mate, and held on with both arms and legs.

Sean caught her, as she unexpectedly launched at him, only stumbling back a step.

"You are amazing, magnificent, wonderful, …" she told him, as she kissed him again and again. Her former calm exploded in an emotional tidal wave. Her fear for his life mixed with extreme admiration, and perverse delight that he had defeated Marnassier. Her prince had proven himself to be more formidable than Isabella's perfect assassin.

Sean gave her an odd half smile. "Your sister, apparently, thinks I'm not strong enough to make a good match for you."

"My sister has no room to advise me on mates." Liliana grinned at him. "I always disliked Marnassier. He has no self-control, a terrible attitude toward women, and he eats people, which is just disgusting."

Sean's stomach chose that moment to rumble.

Liliana laughed. "And he ate your breakfast, which is unforgivable. But that's okay, you can have mine. I will make more."

"I might have some explaining to do at the office if someone reports this," Sean said.

"I won't report it, and most of my neighbors left for work a half hour ago. But I do need a new window."

"I'll take care of it."


	14. Grimm Reckoning

Grimm Reckoning

Sean dressed quickly, ate her breakfast and would have been out the door in ten minutes if she hadn't stopped him just as he was getting into his car.

"I'm sorry, Liliana. I shouldn't have slept so long. I'm late. I have to go."

"Sean, there is some advice I would give you." She fiddled with her skirts. This was a very tricky situation.

"Something important?" He gave her his full attention despite his impatience to get going.

She nodded, but wasn't sure what else to say.

"Is it related to the mauvais dentes? Are you afraid he'll come back? I can have an officer posted outside your house."

"No, no. I'm not worried. Marnassier will be dead before the sun sets. I made sure of that."

Sean shook his head and laughed a little. "Remind me never to make you angry, little spider."

She grinned. "I will." Then she could not delay any longer. "It is someone else who has made me angry that concerns me now."

"Who?"

"The jackal who hurt you." Liliana touched his face where the bruises and scrapes still showed, although faded already by the venom in his system. Marnassier had left new marks on his face in their place. She felt proud when she saw those. He had earned them defending her.

"Kimura is locked up, and will stay that way."

"You know the dragon's tongue sent him?"

"I saw the tattoos."

"He knows about you and some other things that you would not want known, and …" Liliana stumbled to a stop and fiddled with her skirts again.

Sean's lifted her chin up. "Why is this difficult for you? Is it because he hurt me?"

"That is why he made me angry, but no. As you said, I am in a delicate position."

"Ah, this has something to do with Nick."

"Nick will want to speak with Kimura. If I were advising Nick, I would tell Nick it was a good idea, he would learn things he wants to know."

"But you're advising me. And the things Nick wants to know I don't want known."

Liliana sighed in relief and nodded.

Sean leaned down and kissed her. "I know how hard this is for you."

"I wish you had told Nick who you were before Juliette was poisoned. Now, it will be far more difficult."

Sean sighed. "There's no point in thinking about what should have been. I'll deal with the situation as it is."

Liliana looked into Kimura's future while Sean drove to work. The jackal would not live long enough for Nick to speak to him.

She felt guilty that she had helped to thwart her friend's attempt to get more information about his father's death. But it would have been a betrayal of her prince not to warn him. The two men's goals were completely at odds in this case. Just as she had chosen to protect Nick over Marnassier, friend over family, she had chosen to help Sean over Nick, lover over friend.

Liliana remembered being very certain of which side she would fight on if the prince and the Grimm became enemies. Now, she wasn't nearly so certain.

Men came to replace Liliana's window an hour after the prince left. He must have made the phone calls on his way to work, and even then, the men must have owed him a favor or something. She couldn't imagine any other way to get workmen out on such short notice.

She watched the men work with her human eyes and watched Nick and Kelly with her fourth eyes.

Another truck pulled up in front of her house, surprising her. She really should get better about watching her own house with her fourth eyes. Nasty surprises were getting all too frequent.

Two burly men came to her door while the other two men were still finishing her new window.

"We've got a delivery for Miss Liliana?"

"I am Liliana, but I did not order anything to be delivered."

"There's a note, but it's in French." He handed it to her.

"J'espère que vous ne me dérange pas." Signed "Votre prince sombre." Liliana read it and smiled. Some surprises were not so bad. "No, my prince, I do not mind."

The delivery man rolled his eyes, clearly thinking she was crazy for talking to herself. "What did you bring?" she asked the man.

"A bed."

"But I already have a bed."

He shrugged. "I was told to do whatever you want me to do with your existing bed, and to put this one in its place."

"Show me this bed."

The man took her out to the truck and showed her a queen sized bed, solid oak with beautiful hand carving on the headboard of oak leaves and a spider's web. The mattress was so thick she would have to jump a little to get into it. It came with a full set of soft sheets and pillows and a brilliant teal velvet comforter.

Her old bed had been solidly built, but very utilitarian. And very small. She giggled a little as she considered how close she and Sean came to breaking it last night.

"You can take my bed and do what you like with it," she told the burly delivery man. "This one is much better." How Sean found such a beautiful bed, ordered it, and got it delivered all in a single day, she had no idea. But there was an old saying about gift horses and their mouths, which Liliana was content to heed.

She looked forward in time and saw that her prince would come by after work to help her try the bed out. She spent the rest of the afternoon smiling to herself.

There was only one important thing that Liliana had to do today. She had given her word to a Grimm. She had to keep it.

When the workmen left her house, she left as well.

She caught a cab to Nick's house, told him to come back in two hours and twenty-seven minutes, jumped up on the roof and lay down comfortably in a crook where two roof sections met near the front porch, but on the backward slope, so she wouldn't be visible from the street.

She watched a bit, to catch up with the events of the day. She saw Nick and Kelly kill Marnassier, and felt oddly sad. He was a horrible man, but he had been her sister's husband since long before Liliana was born. He had been family. She felt very sad for Isabella, who had raised three children with that awful man. Now, her children had no father.

Liliana picked up the phone that Sean had given her that she could take where ever she went. She searched the world for her sister. She found Isabella in a hotel in Vienna.

She dialed the number. "Zimmer 423 bitte," she told the man who answered. The phone clicked and then rang again.

Isabella's voice said. "Hello, little siter. It has been a long time."

"I am sorry I did not call sooner, Isabella." Liliana's human eyes looked up at the stars on a rare cloudless Portland night. Her fourth eyes looked at her sister as easily as if they were in the same room.

"Your number has been the same for three decades, Liliana. You are not the only one at fault. I see you have a new phone now, though." Isabella was dressed impeccably in a pale peach-colored dress that, no doubt, had some designer label on it. She sat, legs crossed on a small chair on a tiny balcony with a view that overlooked the city.

"Marnassier is dead."

Liliana saw her close all her eyes for a moment and bow her head. "I saw him die before he left Europe." She looked up again, all eyes open, hard and cold.

"You could have stopped him."

"You tried to warn him, and you saw how he repaid your kindness." Her eyes flashed and narrowed with anger.

Liliana smiled a little. "Did you see my mate throw him through a window?"

Isabella chuckled. "I did, little sister. He is quite magnificent. I would be happy for you, but …"

Liliana nodded. "But you know that by tomorrow night, another woman will own his heart and mind."

"I am so sorry, Liliana."

"It is not his fault."

They were both silent for a time, each mourning her loss in her own way.

Liliana had a disturbing thought that Isabella might wish to avenge her former mate. "Will you hunt the Grimm who killed Marnassier?" she asked Isabella.

"You mean Grimms?"

"Yes."

"You made certain there were two. If there had been only one, Marnassier would still live."

"Yes." Liliana didn't know what she would do if Isabella could not forgive her. "And the Grimm would be dead. He is my friend."

Isabella shook her head with a small smile. "Only you, little sister, would name a Grimm friend."

Liliana let her breath out. Isabella was not angry. "Not only me. Many of the wesen of Portland name him friend. He has earned it by risking his life to protect wesen. He brings us justice. He killed two reapers at once by himself to protect some eisbibers. If he were not already deeply in love, I would have claimed his heart and made him my mate. I love him."

Isabella chuckled. "And I worried that you would choose a mate who was not fierce enough."

Liliana smiled. It felt good to hear the pride and surprise in her sister's voice. "I worried that you had chosen a mate who would be cruel to you."

"It seems that only one of us was right." Isabella's lips twisted with irony. She blinked her human eyes a few times. They watered a little, but Isabella wouldn't allow the tears to fall. "I mourned the loss of my mate over a decade ago. Your Grimm is not my enemy, nor is his mother."

The last tension left Liliana's shoulders.

A young woman with sandy blonde hair, the same color as Marnassier's, came and sat on the balcony next to Isabella's chair and leaned against her legs. Liliana's sister stroked the girl's hair gently.

The girl rocked and hummed a little, her many eyes wandering in different directions. Her feet were bare and her pretty yellow dress was wrinkled.

"Oh!" Liliana said. "I had not seen Ariadne in so long. She was just a little girl. She is beautiful." Liliana didn't comment on the fact that the girl clearly had not recovered from the mind wandering that afflicted many spinnesehen when their fourth eyes opened. All of her eyes had been open for over a decade and the girl's mind had still not found its way back to any semblance of normal functioning. She might never be able to function on her own, or, with patience and a lot of help, she might.

It had taken Liliana more than fifteen years to be able to function anything like other people did after her fourth eyes opened. Her second mother had never given up on her. That had made the difference in the end.

Isabella smiled proudly. "She is beautiful, isn't she." Isabella spoke to the girl. "Look who is on the phone, Ari. It is your aunt Liliana."

The girl made no response, but her fourth eyes shifted direction until they looked back at Liliana.

Liliana waved and smiled at her niece, knowing the girl could see her lying on Nick's roof half way round the world, even if the young spinnesehen girl's mind could not necessarily process a proper response.

Ariadne waved her hand in a random direction, then went back to rocking and humming. The girl was sane, but lost inside the maze of her own visions.

"I still live in the same house," Liliana told Isabella. Others might not understand the jump in subject, but she knew her sister would.

"Your house is small." Isabella gestured at the lovely view from her balcony. Liliana could see that the hotel room was itself, very small, and a bit shabby. It was way below her sister's usual standards. Isabella had never had a job of her own that Liliana knew of. Marnassier had supported them both in lavish style. Liliana wondered how Isabella supported herself now, especially since Ariadne would require a great deal of attention.

"I have beaver friends. They could finish my attic into a very nice guest room in a few days."

"It would cost a lot of money."

"I have a lot of money."

Her sister blinked a few times, clearly surprised by that information. "Perhaps we will visit."

"I know it will be hard on Ariadne to travel. But Portland is a good place. Very green. Lots of trees. And the Grimm here is kind. He protects, rather than threatens. We have family here, too, among the lowans." Liliana considered how to get her sister and her niece to come and stay with her. Isabella would never come if she thought it was so Liliana could help her and Ariadne. She was too proud. But, if Isabella thought it was so she could help her little sister, … "The trap my mate must spring will not hurt only him. I will need a friend soon."

"Or a sister."

"Yes."

She saw Isabella nod. "We will come."

Liliana nodded and smiled. "Good."

She hung up the phone as Monroe's car pulled up with Rosalee and Kelly Burkhardt in the back.

Liliana sent a quick text to Nick. "You have nothing to hide. Give the feds what they ask for."

Monroe, Kelly and Rosalee talked for a while, then Rosalee hugged Kelly.

Rosalee was right. That was a smile, a small one, but real. Liliana had become quite adept at reading the subtle facial expressions of people who hid their emotions habitually.

Rosalee and Monroe drove away as Kelly opened the door to go into Nick's house.

Liliana dropped down lightly to perch on the railing on the front porch. Her movements were nearly silent, but Kelly whirled around with a knife in her hand.

Liliana stayed tense, ready to spring back to the roof if the Grimm tried to kill her.

"You," the Grimm in black said. She let the door fall shut. Her knees bent, read to spring.

"I gave you my word that I would answer your questions if you let me save Sean Renard's life. Ask, and I will answer."

Kelly Burkhardt didn't put the knife away, but she looked less inclined to spring forward and stab Liliana. "Nick told me his captain had a close shave. You saved him?"

Liliana nodded. "Thank you for not shooting me. I do not think I could have succeeded with a crossbow bolt in my flesh."

Kelly didn't exactly smile, but her expression lightened. "I got the impression you still would have tried."

"You were correct."

"Does Nick know you're in love with his captain?"

Liliana shook her head. "No, but it was Nick's advice that gave our relationship a chance. I have never been very good with relationships. Nick advised me to give it time to develop, to take a chance and see where it led me."

"You're one of Nick's wesen friends, then, like the blutbad and the fuchsbau." It was more statement than question. Kelly put the knife in her jacket pocket, and leaned at ease against the wall next to Nick's front door, where she could watch both Liliana and the street.

Liliana nodded confirmation. "Nick has many friends among the wesen of Portland, reinegen, seltenvogel, jagerbar. The lowans respect him. The eisbibers adore him. He has earned our trust."

"Have you earned his?"

"Did you know that men beat Monroe badly, as a warning not to associate with a Grimm?"

Kelly shook her head. "What happened?"

"Monroe is a free wolf. He does not let his instincts or anything else but his own principles dictate his actions. He was not about to let someone else dictate who his friends could be. He shared beer with Nick at his home that same evening."

"Brave."

"Monroe has saved Nick's life more than once. I have saved Nick's life more than once. Nick is the most powerful Grimm alive, capable of defeating a lowan ring champion, or two reapers at once, or a two-hundred-year-old mauvais dentes assassin, because he has the one thing no other Grimm has, wesen allies."

"It wasn't you who helped him defeat the mauvais dentes."

"I told Nick to take you with him to fight Marnassier. I knew that if he fought alone, Nick would die."

"How did you know that? What are you?"

"I am spinnesehen. That is how I knew."

"Spinnesehen are extinct."

Liliana smiled sadly. "Almost. There are only three of us left." Liliana looked Kelly in the eyes for just a moment with all of hers. "I am trusting you not to tell the verrat where to find me. I watch your son's back. I keep him alive. I believe that is important to you, so you will keep my secret."

"No one will find out about you from me," Kelly swore.

Liliana half bowed, still perched on the railing. "I believe you." She could see with her third eyes that Kelly spoke the truth.

"What do you know about the coins?" the Grimm asked her.

"I know that Nick took them from Farley Kolt, and he keeps them hidden in his trailer with his Grimm things, in his cupboard of weapons, behind the box that holds the elephant gun."

Kelly tensed. "Who have you told?"

"Only you, and only because I saw that you already knew. Nick showed them to you yesterday. I do not tell Nick's secrets to anyone."

"How can I be sure of that?"

"Do you know why the verrat have worked so hard to kill off every spinnesehen they could find?"

Kelly shook her head. "What has that got to do with what I asked you?"

"We know everyone's secrets. It is our nature that things that are hidden from others are not hidden from us. The verrat, and the royals they serve, do not like that they cannot hide anything from us. No one likes it, but royals like it least. Secrets are their life's blood."

Kelly's hand slipped almost casually into the pocket where her small, but deadly knife was hidden.

Liliana wasn't fooled. "I know the secrets of many dangerous people. I would not tell you Nick's secrets. I would not tell anyone Nick's secrets. That is spinnesehen honor. By that same honor, I will not tell Nick your secret."

Kelly tensed. Inside her pocket, Kelly's knuckles went white around the knife as she tightened her grip, preparing to strike. "What secret?"

Liliana sighed, and prepared to leap away. People were always threatening her when she tried to make friends with them. She must be doing it wrong. "I love your son, Kelly Burkhardt. I protect him. Is your secret more important than Nick's life?"

She loosened her grip on the knife, but challenged Liliana with words. "Nick fights as well as I do. As if he'd been doing it all his life. Why does he need you?"

"Nick has only been a Grimm for about a year. Who do you think taught him to fight?"

Kelly didn't need to answer that question. Liliana had gotten her blade on Kelly's throat before the experienced, battle-scarred Grimm could stop her. She narrowed her eyes at the slender spider girl. "What secret do you think I'm hiding?" the Grimm asked.

"You have not been honest with Nick about what you intend to do with the coins, or where you have been, and who you serve. I wish that you really were going to destroy those coins. The world would be far better off without them."

"Do you intend to tell him?" She still handled the knife in her pocket, but now it looked more like a nervous habit, and less like a threat. The weapon was Kelly's comfort, as silken materials were Liliana's.

"I will keep your secrets just as I keep his."

"What secrets does Nick have?"

Liliana smiled. "His biggest secret is that he has several wesen allies who aid him."

"Which I already know."

Liliana smiled wider.

"Which is why you told me that when I asked a nosey question about Nick's secrets." Kelly smiled a little, herself.

Liliana asked, "Have I answered all the questions you wanted to ask me?"

"Yeah. You've done what you said you would." Kelly straightened up from where she had been leaning against the wall.

"Stay away from the windows," Liliana told her, as she hopped back into the yard, still facing Kelly, using her second eyes to see where she landed.

Kelly's brows drew together in confusion.

"The FBI will start watching Nick's house soon." Liliana's lips twisted a little in amusement. "They believe he might have had something to do with the killing of a man today who murdered two FBI agents."

Kelly chuckled. "I can't imagine why they would think that."

Despite the fact that Kelly meant the exact opposite of what she said, Liliana understood her perfectly. Liliana was getting better at communication, she realized. She had been doing so much of it with Sean and Nick, Monroe, Rosalee and Phoebe, the practice had helped her improve without her noticing.

She walked to the door of the cab just as it pulled in front of Nick's house.

"Tomorrow, evening, just before you tell Nick that you must leave, tell him these words, "He knows, and is already doing what is needed."

"Who knows? About what?"

"It will make sense tomorrow, when you are ready to tell Nick you're leaving."

"I'm not planning on leaving."

Liliana smiled sadly. "You will be."

She got in the cab and went home. Sean had only one more night while his will was his own. He had to work late, but she intended to spend whatever time she could with him.


	15. Last Night

Last Night

Sean did not leave work until very late. He stayed, investigating Marnassier, learning who he was (aside from Isabella's ex-husband) and where he had come from.

Nick stayed late, too, checking Marnassier's prints against the prints in the cargo container, and searching for other matches.

Liliana saw her prince call his brother, Eric. He deliberately woke him, well aware of the time difference, to tell him the assassin he sent had died, violently.

Sean carefully did not tell his brother who killed the mauvais dentes, but implied that Marnassier had probably met his end at the hands of Portland's Grimm.

It could only enhance Nick's reputation as a formidable enemy if everyone thought he killed the brutally efficient assassin. If Nick one day became Sean's Grimm, then that would only enhance Sean's reputation. Her prince played a long game. He understood the value of patience.

Sean defended Nick when the FBI agents implied that Nick might have had something to do with Marnassier's death. Sean was almost certain that Nick had killed the man, but he showed his willingness to back him up if Nick refused to give DNA evidence.

Liliana had already told Nick that it was safe to give them what they wanted. The DNA would not match. The hair the FBI had found was long and wavy, not short and straight.

Since Kelly Burkhardt was officially dead, there was no chance the FBI would connect her to the murder either.

Both Grimms were safe.

Liliana put on a green silk nightgown and did her best to apply makeup without looking like a circus clown. That was all she knew to do to make herself prettier for her prince, so she ate a little while she waited, and watched tomorrow.

She watched the agents question Nick. She watched Kelly accidentally kill Catherine Schade, Adelind's mother, trying to find out the identity of the prince who could save Juliet. She watched Sean drink the horrible potion and writhe in agony.

That was the hardest part to watch.

But worse would come after, she knew.

Tears flowed down her cheeks.

Sometimes, seeing what will happen before it does, meant that she mourned that which had not yet died.

Sean knocked on her door.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and let him in.

She did her best to smile for him.

He cupped her cheek, stroked his thumb across the track of her tears and shook his head. "The smile is a lie, little spider. I don't ever want you to lie to me."

She stopped trying to hide the sadness she felt. She blinked, and another tear fell.

"What is it?" he asked.

"The potion will be ready tomorrow."

"Is it that bad?"

"It will steal your heart from me." Liliana put her hand under his long brown coat and his suit jacket on the smooth silken fabric of his shirt.

"There is no power on earth that can do that." He covered her hand with his and held it tight to his chest so she could feel his heart beating. "This is real." He tilted her head up with a grip on her cheek that was not gentle. "Look into me, Liliana." The muscle on the side of his jaw clenched tight. He looked angry.

LIliana opened her third eyes as he commanded.

Sean was angry, but not at her. "For the first time in my life, I have something rare and precious that is completely real and completely mine. No one will steal that from me. I won't allow it." In his mind, Liliana saw fear that his words were not true, and iron determination to make them true. All his life, everything that he believed should be his by right had been taken away. He only ever got to keep things he fought for, only things he was willing to risk death to hold onto.

If anyone on earth could defeat the hexenbiest's trap with pure willpower, it would be Sean Renard.

"You will fight for me?"

His expression softened, and she saw in his mind a memory of her, naked in his arms. She had told him that she knew she might die fighting for his life, and he told her he didn't want her to fight, then. Now, he gave her the same answer she had given him. "A dozen angry siegbarstes couldn't stop me from fighting for you."

Liliana smiled to hear him saying her own words back to her.

He smiled back. There was still fear and determination and anger in his mind, but there was also an overwhelming warmth that was all hers. "That is a much better smile."

"You make me smile a lot," she told him. It was true. She had wept a lot more since she met him, too, but she felt the balance was well worth it.

"Did you like the gift I sent?" He took off his coat, jacket, gun holster and tie and hung them in the closet by the door. He kicked his shiny black Italian shoes off, too, and left them in the closet as well.

Liliana giggled and led him by the hand to see his gift in its proper place in her bedroom. The new bed filled most of the available space, with just a narrow walkway left to get to her dresser, closet and bathroom. "I love the carving and the comforter is my favorite color, which you obviously knew, but the bed is far too big for me alone."

"I'd have gotten a bigger one, but it wouldn't fit." He lifted her a couple inches off her feet, and sat her on the bed facing him.

She put her arms around his slender waist. "Why would I need such a big bed?" she asked him, with a mischievous grin. Her hands drifted down from his waist to grip his magnificent backside with both hands.

He chuckled low and hungry. "I'll have to show you." He guided her back onto the bed and kissed her, prowling over her on his hands and knees.

Beneath the teasing and the smiles, the fear still filled them both. Since he had given permission, Liliana could see it in him, and also see his determination not to let it ruin their last night together before he walked into a trap poised to shatter the beautiful, delicate thing they had built.

His kiss wasn't gentle or teasing. It was harsh and demanding. His big hands pushed her nightgown straps off her shoulders and ran down her body possessively. One word rang like a clarion call through his mind. MINE. "Etre la mienne pour toujours, ma petite araignée," he growled into her ear.

Her own desires answered back to that demanding call in his soul with the same cry. MINE. "Je veux vraiment être le vôtre," she whispered. "I want so very badly to be yours." She kissed him as hard as he had kissed her, while her hands yanked his shirt open, popping buttons in every direction. She desperately wanted to share venom with him for the third time. It would bind them more tightly together. She would claim him in every way she could.

Sean knew what she wanted. He rolled onto his back, bringing her with him, so that she straddled his waist. She kissed him like she wanted to eat him, then trailed hot kisses down his throat. She had to get to more of his skin. His undershirt tore apart under her eager hands.

Liliana almost apologized, but Sean impatiently ripped the rest of the offending cloth off and tossed it aside when she hesitated.

It took every ounce of self-control Liliana possessed not to rush biting him and hurt him. But Sean would suffer enough pain. She refused to add to it in the slightest.

She gloried in watching the fear and worry fade from his face and his mind, soothed away by her bite. She wished she could wash away the source of his fear so easily.

Liliana wondered if having her venom in his system tomorrow would have any effect on the trap Adelind had set. She blinked her fourth eyes open for just a moment, and saw something that gave her hope. It might. Her venom might be able to mitigate the effects of Adelind's poison, at least enough to give her prince a fighting chance.

She almost stopped to tell her prince what she had discovered, but his eyes were heavy-lidded with desire and euphoria, the green as deep as moss in spring.

"Je t'aime," he whispered, and pulled her down to his mouth. "Je t'adore, ma petite," he murmured against her lips. His hands demanded her complete attention, touching her in ways that made her shudder and cry out.

She could tell him tomorrow.


	16. Springing the Trap

Springing the Trap

Sean was already gone when Liliana woke up the next morning. The new bed was like sleeping on a cloud. She hadn't even noticed that her old mattress had been a bit worn out until she got a new one.

Sean had left her new phone on the pillow next to her.

She inhaled his scent on her sheets, smiled and stretched. She picked up the phone curiously and looked at it. A text message waited for her: Call me when you wake up.

Liliana dialed Sean's cell phone number.

"Good morning," he answered. "This is important. I have to take this," he said to Officer Wu and another officer. They had been giving him some sort of status update. He waved them out of his office and shut the door behind them.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Liliana said. "I should have looked to see if you were busy before I called."

He smiled wide as he sat back down behind his desk. "You did me a favor. Wu's jokes get old after a while, and I don't really care how many moving violations got written this week."

"Did you want me to call you for a reason?"

"I just wanted to talk, but I didn't want to wake you." Sean Renard actually looked a little embarrassed. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen that look on his face. "Did I …" he cleared his throat. "Did I tell you that I loved you last night?"

"Yes. In French, when you were very deep in the venom's influence." Liliana smiled at his discomfort. "It's all right. I know that the venom affects your judgment and your emotions. I never take anything seriously that a man says just after he's been bitten."

He nodded, and ran his hand across his face. "That's what I was afraid of."

Liliana's smile faded. Was it so terrible that he might say he loved her? Was it so far from the truth?

"That wasn't how I meant that to happen," he said. "I just wanted you to know that, before …" he shrugged.

"Wanted me to know what?" she asked, confused.

"That I love you."

Liliana had no idea what to say. Her prince was dead sober, awake, and completely in possession of his faculties. The silence stretched between them.

Sean ran his hand through his hair. "That wasn't how I meant to say that either, damnit."

"It doesn't matter how you say it. It just matters if you mean it." Liliana wished desperately that she could look into her prince with her third eyes right then. Her fourth eyes could only see in normal spectrums, as if she were sitting in the room with him, with only her human eyes open.

Sean picked up a paper clip and bent it open. "People always want something from me. There's always some privilege, some favor, some information, some future possibility of advancement. Something."

Liliana had seen inside Sean's head enough times to know what he meant. A lot of people had pretended to be his friend or to desire him through the years. Some had truly liked or desired him, but it had been secondary to getting something from him. He had been with Adelind because she was useful. People had forged relationships with him for the same reason, because he was useful to them. It was the only kind of relationship he had experienced. Everyone in his world had a hidden agenda. So did he, for that matter.

"You don't want anything but me. You never have." Sean put the neatly straightened paper clip down on his desk, and straightened his shoulders resolutely. "I love you, Liliana." He nodded satisfaction. That was how he had intended to tell her.

She no longer had any doubt that he meant it. "And I love you, Sean Renard."

There was silence on the line between them for a time, but it was a very warm silence.

Liliana cuddled the pillow next to her that still held his scent. "If you are determined to fight for me, my prince, I may have discovered a weapon you can use."

He leaned forward in his chair. "Tell me."

"Venom. It binds you to me, and me to you. It will not counteract Adelind's poison completely, but it may help you to fight the effects until we can find a counter."

Sean smiled. "I think I like this idea."

Liliana laughed. "What happened to the Sean Renard who said he would never let me bite him because he might lose control to someone else for a few minutes?"

His face softened. "I trust you."

That put a lump in Liliana's throat. "I am honored, my prince." Trust had to be harder for him, in many ways, than love.

"You've never let me down."

"I hope I never will." Liliana thought about what she had seen would happen today, and if there was anything else she should tell him. "Sean, is Catherine Schade someone special to you?"

His brows drew together. "Her family owes me a debt."

Liliana had followed both their timelines backward, and seen that there was more to it than that. "She was your lover."

"Are you jealous, little spider?" he asked with a small smile.

She chuckled. "No, my prince. It's just that her life is in danger. It would be difficult for me to save her. I might have to fight a Grimm. Not ours. Another one."

"Kimura said there were two Grimms."

"There will only be one after today, ours. The other one will leave town tonight if Catherine dies."

"Can you tell me who it is?"

Liliana thought about what she had seen. Her prince had been looking on-line at information about the accident that supposedly killed Kelly Burkhardt. "It would be a betrayal of her secrets if I told you, and I don't think you need me to. Before the day is out, you will have figured it out on your own."

His lips quirked in irony. "Good to know." He shook his head. "Just stay out of it, little spider. I don't want you risking yourself."

Liliana nodded acceptance. "All right."

Sean's shoulders sagged a little as he relaxed tension. He had been afraid she would fight the Grimm, no matter what he said.

"I am not always easy to boss around, my prince, but if I ask, I will accept your answer. If I am not willing to follow your lead, then I will not ask."

His lips twitched into his barely there amused smile. "I'll remember that."

"The potion will be awful for you."

"You already told me that."

"Do you want me to be there when you take it?"

He was silent for a while. He picked up the paper clip and bent it again, as if he would force it back into its original shape. "No."

Liliana could see that it cost him something to say that. "I have already seen."

His jaw clenched. "You asked. The answer is no. I don't want anyone near me if it's as bad as you say, especially you."

"I understand, my prince." The beast in him reacted violently to pain and threat. He kept it under tight control most of the time. He didn't like that she had seen him lose control, but he would hate it even more if Liliana witnessed it in person. She wondered if there was anything she could say that would help. "You are very brave to do this, my prince. You make me proud."

His expression softened. He closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm glad you called, little spider."

She smiled. She had said the right thing. "Nick will be okay. The FBI cannot pin Marnassier's murder on him, and he is too smart for them to trick him into confessing involvement."

Sean nodded. "Also good to know. Thank you." He never seemed phased by her sudden jumps in subject. He actually seemed to like that she said what needed saying, then moved on to something else.

"I will meet you at the hospital later." She hung up the phone.

She had work to do today, three appointments. She reluctantly got out of the huge soft bed and started her day. She alternated between elation that her prince had said he loved her, and sadness that she would begin to lose him today.

She had intended her invitation to Isabella to be for the good of Ariadne, but she really did feel like she could use a big sister right now. She wished that they were here already.

That reminded her to call Phoebe. Phoebe agreed to send her husband, Bud, and a half dozen of his handy beaver friends over first thing in the morning to begin turning her attic into a space for guests. They should be able to complete the project in a week, two at most.

Liliana decided to sacrifice her garage as well, so that she could add on two bedrooms and another bathroom. Hopefully, her sister and niece would feel comfortable enough to stay for a long time.

It would probably use up most of the money in the bag that Marilyn had given her, but Liliana felt that making space for her family qualified as an excellent use for the money.

She regretted losing her web of tightropes and swinging bars more than the money. Perhaps she could spend more time in the forest. Ariadne would like it there.

She met Sean at the hospital late that evening.

He had taken the potion. The bruises were livid on his face from the two beatings he had endured in the last two days, stark against his unusually pale skin. His strong hands still trembled slightly, but he stood as tall as ever, back straight. His pale green eyes looked soft, and a little sad. The potion had changed him temporarily. It had stolen some of the anger that was his armor.

As soon as he saw her, he engulfed Liliana in his arms and held on for long moments.

Doctors and nurses looked on in sympathy and let them be, seeing his battered face and thinking they must have suffered some sort of loss. In a way, they were not wrong.

Sean tried to kiss her, but Liliana stopped him with a hand on his lips.

Pain flashed in his eyes, a vulnerability that wasn't normal for him.

"You cannot, my prince. You must only kiss Juliette, or your pain would have been for nothing."

He clenched his jaw and nodded understanding.

Liliana's phone rang. She jumped in surprise. Her prince was the only one who had ever called her on this phone.

She looked down at the number. "It is Nick," she said, surprised.

"Answer it," he ordered. Even at his purest, he was still bossy.

"Nick?"

"Tell me who he is," the Grimm demanded.

"Who who is?" she asked.

"You told my mother that he knew and was already doing what was needed. You know who the prince is in Portland. He's the only one who can save Juliette. Why didn't you tell me?"

Liliana sighed, and looked up at Sean. "I cannot tell you who the prince is, Nick."

Sean's eyebrows went up.

"You can't, or you won't?" Nick's voice was cold with anger.

"I won't, Nick. I do not tell the prince or anyone else your secrets. I will not tell you his. He will reveal himself to you in his own time."

"Lilly, this is Juliette's life. You have to tell me!" His anger mixed with a pleading note.

"Juliette will not die. He will save her. Come to the hospital right now and you will see."

Nick was silent for a moment. "Now?"

Liliana nodded. "Yes, now." She hung up the phone.

She checked with her fourth eyes. Nick had called just after he dropped off his mother at the train station, which was not far from the hospital. She saw him run a red light. He would arrive in minutes.

Liliana told Sean, "He is coming."

Sean went into Juliette's room, carefully avoiding surveillance cameras.

Liliana waited for him. She watched him with her fourth eyes.

His green eyes showed softness, compassion, as he bent down and kissed the beautiful comatose woman. He left the room quickly.

Juliette blinked awake seconds later.

Liliana smiled as he met her in the hallway outside the elevators. "You have done it, my prince. Juliette is awake."

Liliana gave him with enthusiasm the kiss she had denied him earlier. Automatically, she opened her third eyes as they came together.

In his mind was relief that it was over, pleasure, pride, and love. Love for Liliana, pure and shining and beautiful, with no hesitation. For a moment, his image of her flickered, and Juliette's face took her place.

He pulled away from Liliana suddenly, and shook his head as if to clear it. "I didn't …"

"I know." Liliana sighed. The trap was sprung, and her prince was well and truly caught. "It is a lie, but it is a lie that will become stronger and stronger."

"I'll fight it." Determination rang in his voice and his pure, unguarded heart.

"I will do what I can to help, my prince. Give me permission to watch your heart and mind."

He nodded. "Whenever you want."

Liliana cringed a little. Her Sean would never have said that. "You need to go. Take the stairs. Nick is already on the elevator."

All around them, people were rushing around, talking about what a miracle it was that the young woman in the coma just woke up.

Sean's hands lingered on Liliana's for a moment, clinging in a way he never had. "I …" He closed his mouth, biting back words that Sean Renard, in full control, and fully himself, would never say. His need was stark in his mind. Pain and fear flooded him, unmasked by the potion that stole the hardness he had spent so many years building around his heart to protect himself from a harsh life.

"Wait for me in the parking garage," she told him. "I won't leave you alone tonight."

Gratitude and relief flooded his mind, but he said nothing. He just nodded and walked away.

The elevator doors opened. Nick came out. His face showed a mix of anger, fear and hope.

Liliana took him by the hand and led him to Juliette's room.

There was no way to soften the blow that would land on him.

She let him have his moment of delight to see Juliette awake. He kissed her and told her how much he loved her, before the woman Nick loved more than his own life asked him who he was.

Both of the men Liliana loved were shattered into pieces by this insidious trap Adelind left behind her. Liliana very much wished she could chop the blonde hexenbiest's body into tiny pieces and feed them to her.


	17. Aftermath

Aftermath

As a dazed Nick was chased out of Juliette's room by doctors and nurses, Liliana hugged him tight.

He pushed away from her, angrily. "You knew! You could've told me!"

"Would it have helped?" Liliana asked him calmly.

He sagged, the anger draining away. "Probably not."

"You and Rosalee stopped her memory loss as quickly as you could, but … "

"Not soon enough. Is it permanent?"

"I don't know. But I have not yet seen a time when she remembers you, so she will not remember soon." Liliana couldn't bring herself to tell him about the other part of the trap. Her prince would not want her to, in any case. "I am so very sorry, Nick."

"It's not your fault, Lilly."

Lilly flushed with shame. "It is."

"What?"

"I told you how to defeat Adelind, to save Hank's life. I didn't know that Juliette would pay the price. This is Adelind's revenge."

Nick's jaw clenched hard. His nostrils flared wide and his blue eyes burned like a flame under dark brows. "Adelind," was all he said.

Liliana nodded agreement. She knew exactly how he felt. "Unfortunately, the wicked beast is far beyond our reach. For now. She will return, though." And then, she would pay for what she had done.

Nick ran his hand through his tousled black hair. "What am I going to do?"

"Speak to the doctors. Let them know who you are, and that Juliette is suffering from memory loss."

"Yeah, I figured that."

"Then, go to Monroe's place tonight. Promise me you will not go home to your empty house."

Nick balked at first, but in the end, he promised.

A quick text message warned Monroe that Nick was coming, and he would need a strong shoulder, a sympathetic ear, and a stiff drink.

She hugged Nick tight again, kissed his cheek, and told him he could get through this.

That was all she could do for her favorite Grimm.

She spent the night at Sean's apartment.

He hadn't slept there since the jackal murdered his housekeeper and nearly tortured him to death. But the surroundings were familiar to him. She thought it would help to bring back a sense of his old self.

The place had been cleaned and put back into the painstaking, spotless order that he preferred.

She kept her third eyes open, watching him carefully. He seemed to be recovering slowly from the potion that had taken away the part of him that was hard and cold.

It seemed odd that she missed that part. If someone had said that he could become a gentle, compassionate person, she might have thought it would be a good thing.

But it wasn't.

He was not Sean Renard, and that was the man that she loved.

She just had to keep him safe from harm while he could not defend himself, and soon, her Sean would come back. She had seen him in times to come, and he had looked very much like himself.

They made love, tender and slow, as it had never been before with Sean. He was a creature of fierce passion and iron control, of hands that played her masterfully like an instrument, and a mouth that plundered and commanded her response. The man she held in her arms was what lay beneath the anger and iron will. It was the heart of Sean, the heart that she had questioned even existed at first, so thick was his shield.

Without that armor, Sean was still brave, but also wounded and lonely. He looked at her with soft green needy eyes. He was the child of privilege who had everything taken away; the boy whose friends had proven untrue and whose own brother despised him. That pure center of him was far too fragile to leave exposed to a dangerous world, especially a royal prince's world filled with manipulators and back-stabbers. People like his brother Eric and the beast Adelind would chew this Sean up, and spit out his shattered bones.

She shared venom with the gentle, vulnerable shadow of her Sean, hoping it would help to counteract both the potion he had taken, and Adelind's spell. She wanted all of him back.

As the venom's mind-altering phase faded, Liliana could see that it was working, or maybe the potion was simply wearing off. Sean's normal strength returned, his cold iron shell dropped into place to hide his vulnerable center. With it came anger, seething beneath eyes gone gray as flint.

The lines around his eyes, and the hard planes of his jaw tightened back into their normal carefully controlled mask.

"Welcome back, my prince," Liliana sighed with relief.

"Bitch," he growled. At Liliana's surprised look, he shook his head. "Catherine. She didn't tell me what that stuff would do to me."

"Catherine Schade has paid the price for her duplicity. She died keeping your secrets. And, at least the harm she did to you was temporary."

He rubbed the spot on his shoulder where Liliana had bitten him. "How temporary would it have been without your help, I wonder."

It was an interesting question. Her prince always asked the best questions. There was no way to get an answer now, though, with Catherine dead. "It doesn't matter. You are yourself again. That's what is important."

He was silent for a while, thinking, wondering if he really was back, completely, or if the potion had changed him in some fundamental way that he didn't even know. If so, would he ever know?

Liliana still had her third eyes open. "The only way that you are different is that the seed of obsession for Juliette has been planted."

He raised an eyebrow, face still hard with anger. "You're looking into my head without permission."

Liliana smiled. That was her Sean. "You gave me permission when you were not yourself."

"I am myself now?" It was a question.

"Yes, you are." Liliana knelt over his waist, put her hands on either side of his face, and stared into him with all of her eyes. Her eyes made other people uncomfortable. Her prince only thought them beautiful.

"I know that you are completely yourself because you let me look inside you, both before the potion affected you and after. I have seen your soul. I have seen your secrets. And now, I have seen your pure, unguarded heart."

Sean clenched his jaw. He hated that anyone had seen him like that. Especially her.

"I knew the moment you were yourself again, because I know you, down to the center. Locking me out now does no good. It only makes it harder for me to help you."

"You're asking me to let you invade my mind, anytime you want to." The words were cold, clipped, accusing. But Liliana could see the fear behind them.

"Anytime you need me to. Adelind's curse affects your mind. If you will not let me see its effects, it will be harder for me to help you fight it."

She watched as he considered.

His first thought was that one by one, she was crossing every line he drew. No one had gotten to him like that. He didn't know what game she was playing.

Liliana considered telling him that she only crossed lines he allowed her to cross. And that was exactly why he trusted her farther than anyone else. But she decided to keep her mouth shut and let him think it through on his own. It was the right decision.

He blinked as it hit him that she could see everything he was thinking right then. And she just waited for him to make up his mind. She didn't push him. She had asked, so she would abide by whatever rules he set.

Sean realized that he was the only one playing games. This was such a new experience for him, being with someone who didn't have an agenda beyond getting closer to him. That was her whole goal, not a means to another end. He knew that was true, but a part of him still kept expecting the other shoe to drop. He kept looking for the hidden knife.

He cupped her cheek with his hand. She used her knives to defend him, not to cut him.

When the potion had stripped him, left him defenseless, he had given her permission to look into him whenever she wanted. If he said nothing, then would that permission still count?

Liliana nodded.

Sean swallowed. Her eyes saw everything, even his thoughts. It was like being naked, except he had never felt so vulnerable in his own skin. An hour before, he had been ten times as vulnerable. And Liliana had done what she always did when he couldn't defend himself. She could have taken advantage of his vulnerability, could have hurt him, could probably have convinced him to give her anything she wanted. Instead, she had protected him, kept him safe.

He had let a poison into his mind. She was the only one who could see the damage it did. She was the only one who could help him fight it. But she could only do that if he let her in as well.

He swallowed, and nodded his permission. "I am yours, little spider, body and soul."

Liliana put her hand over his racing heart. "That may be the bravest thing I have ever seen you do, my prince."

"I trust you." Please, don't let me down. He didn't bother to say the words out loud. He knew she saw them in his mind.

She also saw the fear. He had trusted before, and been betrayed. It had become so much harder. If she betrayed him, it would cut him deep enough that he might never be able to trust anyone again. She could cripple him. She could destroy him.

He believed that she wouldn't. But he couldn't help but fear that she would. Too many betrayals lay in his past. Some were even his own. He had betrayed people who trusted him. He had taken advantage of vulnerability. She had not.

She was better than him in some ways. She was far better than he deserved.

Sean pulled her in for a deep kiss.

Liliana sank into the kiss, adoring the closeness of free access to his heart and mind, the cold, steely strength of him. Her prince was himself. All the flaws, all the mistakes, all the anger and pain, controlled passion and fierce ambition, that made him who he was. All of it was hers.

Juliette's face flashed in his mind for just a moment.

He froze stiff in her arms. He was horrified. He had only been thinking of Liliana. The image of Juliette had been a foreign invasion, like a cancer growing in his mind.

Liliana held him close, cuddling his face into her chest.

He clung to her like a life preserver in a stormy sea, terrified and furious. He was angry at himself for being afraid, angry at Adelind for doing this horrible cruel thing to them, and even more angry at himself for dragging Liliana into this with him. This would hurt her as much as him. If he pushed her away now, he might spare her pain, but he was too selfish to give her up, especially now. He needed her.

"I chose you, my prince, just as you chose me. I would not walk away now, even if you pushed." He had given her the keys to his soul. She would use that as a weapon against the enemy they faced. "We will fight this together."

Now that they had reached this level of closeness, of trust, of love, they had so very much to lose.

And she still didn't know if, in the end, they had any chance of winning.

But side by side, they would fight.

The end, for now.

Further adventures of Liliana in the Grimm universe to come.


End file.
